Such is Life: The Spark
by The-Other-Ghostwriter
Summary: SamFrenzy. First one I've seen, so far...The Decepticons decide that Sam should be humiliated, and Frenzy carries it out in the worst way. No one knew the repercussions of what that would cause...ManBot n' all that jazz...Primus, this title sucks...
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1- Degradation**

It all happened so fast. Too fast, in Sam's opinion. It started out so…normally. A year had passed since the war in Mission City, and Sam thought that a reunion of sorts was in order. Everyone who mattered was to come; Mikaela, Optimus, Ratchet, Ironhide—with Captain Lennox, of course—Sgt. Epps, Maggie, and Glen. He made plans a month in advance, and was sure everything was to go as perfectly planned.

…And then, a week before the reunion, Mikaela broke up with him.

It had been a shock for Sam. He stood there with his mouth open for God only knew how long, his brain trying to process what she had said to him. He asked why, and she didn't answer. She just shook her head, said she was sorry, and left him sitting like a retarded rock on his couch. An hour later, he was crying his eyes out on his bed. For the rest of the day, he just stared into a random direction until he fell asleep.

When he woke up the next morning, he pretended nothing happened—aside from barely talking and staring into space. Bumblebee was worried, but when he tried to get Sam to talk, or laugh from something he found via radio, Sam just shook his head, and Bee left him alone. The week passed like a blur, and then the day of the reunion came. Sam snapped out of his slum to greet everyone he hadn't seen in months. He found it amusing that Glen would stare and obsess like a fangirl no matter how many times he saw the Autobots. Maggie immediately went into conversation with Optimus about stuff he didn't have a clue about, and Lennox and Epps retold stories with Ratchet and Ironhide. Bumblebee and Glen talked about geek stuff 'Bee recently got into.

Sam was left to his own device, half dreading Mikaela coming, and half-hoping she would so he would have someone to talk to. But right now, he was actually enjoying his solitude. He looked up at the sky and sighed.

"Sam?"

Optimus's voice made him turn around. The Autobot leader bent down closer to Sam, his optics holding a touch of concern. Sam put on a happy face. "Yeah, what's up, Optimus?" he said cheerfully. Optimus blinked, as though confused.

"Where is Mikaela?" he asked. "I thought she was coming with you." Sam's smile faltered slightly.

"Err…" He tripped over his words. "…I don't know…" He frowned. "…If she _is_ coming, Optimus…"

Optimus blinked again. "May I ask why not?" he said with polite curiousness. Sam shook his head without really meaning to, his urge to cry rising. Thankfully, Optimus left it at there and stood back up, deciding to talk to Bumblebee about it.

Unfortunately, the urge to cry did not quell when Optimus left, and the last thing Sam wanted to do at the moment was have a nervous breakdown in front of everyone. Making sure everyone else was occupied, Sam made a break for the road and ran blindly alongside it.

A few moments later, he heard a car behind him, and sighed. "I just want to be alone for awhile, okay, Bee?" he said without turning around. He heard the car's engine rev and continue to follow him. "Bee, _please_—!"

He was cut off when the car bumped non-too-gently into his legs, making him pitch forward into the gravel. "Bee, what the…!?" He turned around to snap at his friend when he paused. It wasn't Bee.

It was a police car. A very recognizable police car with no one in the driver's seat.

_Fuck_.

"Oh, shit!" Sam hollered, scrambling up and taking off. The car sped after and past him, then stopped right in front of him, the door popping open. And out sprung the silver bane of Sam's current existence, shrieking and chattering madly. Sam skidded to a halt, and turned to run the other way. He didn't get two steps before the little Decepticon tackled him to the ground and dragged him to the police car. "Shit, shit, _shit_!" Sam kicked at his abductor, but the little Decepticon dodged all of his attempts and managed to grab Sam by the shirt and hurl him into the car. The door slammed shut and locked, and after the chattering imp hopped in through the open passenger window, Barricade sped off.

"_Let me the fuck out of here, you sonofabitch_!" Sam shrieked, kicking at Barricade's door. Barricade took a sharp turn, and Sam was hurled to the other side of the car, his head cracking against the window. That gave Barricade about ten seconds of kick-free peace before Sam shook it off and pounded his fists on the window.

The police car let out a growl of anger and revved his engine. **"Don't just sit there, Frenzy!"** he rumbled at his small partner. **"Restrain him; I don't want anymore dents on me!"**

Frenzy let out a whirring sound and jumped in the back seats right on top of Sam. Sam yelled out as Frenzy's sharp fingers dug into his skin as he held him down. Sam managed to nudge his leg under the small Transformer and kick him to the other side of the back seat before getting up to pound on the window again. Frenzy shook it off and pounced again, this time pinning Sam facedown in the seats.

Sam struggled for about an hour before exhausting himself and lying still and sobbing on the Decepticon's back seat. Frenzy stopped holding him down, but remained sitting on his back to keep him in place.

The ride lasted for another hour, then Barricade stopped in a remote area well away from any Autobots and turned the engine off. **"Alright, Frenzy,"** he said in Cybertronian, **"do what needs to be done."** Frenzy nodded, let out a short click, and hopped out the opened door. He hauled the exhausted boy out after him, and dragged him away from Barricade, who transformed and made himself comfortable leaning against a tree.

Sam couldn't fight himself away from Frenzy as the small 'bot found a clear area and dropped the leg he had dragged. Sam didn't move as Frenzy moved over and grabbed his hands. He grabbed something out of his chest and snapped them on Sam's wrists, effectively restraining him. Sam wondered what was going to happen next when Frenzy jerked his pants down and threw them in some random direction. It then sort of occurred to Sam what the little Decepticon had in mind and began to thrash about, trying to get away. Frenzy just grabbed him, pinned him down, and shoved a metal gag in his mouth. Over the his own muffled screams, Sam heard the familiar sound of metal shifting, and felt something against his leg accompany the sound. He screamed again.

Barricade crossed his arms and tuned out the sounds his partner and the human were making with the Earth music he had grown to…appreciate, in a manner of speaking. His thoughts turned to a few days ago, when Starscream had shared with them his idea of torturing 'the human'—i.e., Sam Witwicky. He had looked up something around the lines of 'human degradation', and decided that the smallest—Frenzy—was best suited to carry out the 'degradation'. All that took for preparation was a confiscated 'instructional' videotape out of the evidence locker, and a few scanned 'moderations' for Frenzy's physique.

In all honesty, Barricade wasn't all gung-ho about it; torture wasn't his forte, and he had no interest in it. Turning up Metallica, he waited for Frenzy to finish his job. He wasn't Ladiesman 217's biggest fan, but he wasn't about to get a voyeur's pleasure in seeing him sodomized.

**I'm a sick, twisted individual. But someone please tell me I'm not the only Sam/Frenzy fan….Oh yeah…sick and twisted…right…**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2- Humiliation**

Mikaela arrived not ten minutes after Optimus last spoke with Sam. Optimus had indeed asked Bumblebee what was wrong, and Bee solemnly told his leader about the breakup, and how hard Sam was taking it. He too didn't know whether or not Mikaela was coming, but just as he finished talking to Optimus, Mikaela drove up and got out, all but looking over the others to obviously seek out Sam.

Optimus himself looked back where he had last seen Sam, but the boy was gone. He figured Sam was having some 'alone' time, and didn't think much of it. For some reason, he felt that he needed to ask Mikaela about what happened between them, but after seeing her busy herself with reacquainting with old friends, he put it off for later.

But now it was nearing sunset. It had been three hours since Sam had left, and Optimus was getting worried. Him, and everyone else, especially Bee. Bee understood that Sam needed his space, but this was ridiculous. He did a quick scan of the area, but Sam wasn't anywhere within the two-mile radius he scanned.

"Optimus, Sir?" he said quietly, but urgently, so not to alarm everyone. Optimus turned around and saw the scared concern on Bee's visage.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Sir…Sam isn't anywhere within two miles of here!" he said, his voice wavering. "Something's not right, Optimus…Sam's in trouble!"

He said that last part a little too loudly, which made everyone look up and stare, especially Mikaela.

"What's wrong with Sam?" she asked, her concern showing. She had broken it off with Sam because she felt like she didn't fit in with the picture as a whole, but she still cared about Sam with all her heart. When she heard Bumblebee say that Sam was in trouble, her heart skipped about four beats.

Optimus looked at everyone's troubled faces and sighed. "Sam's been missing for three hours, and he's nowhere in or around this vicinity," he said calmly. "Bumblebee and I believe that foul play is involved."

"Decepticons," Ironhide immediately growled, his cannons making a small charging sound. "I'm betting my cannons and every piece of ammunition I own they're the cause!"

"Calm down, Ironhide, we don't know that for sure," Ratchet said, though his voice carried just as much venom at the thought of Decepticons with their hands on Sam.

**PB**

Barricade checked his internal clock and sighed. **"Are you DONE yet, Frenzy!?"** he called over to the area where Frenzy had dragged the Witwicky boy. He heard a short screech in reply, which he interpreted as 'up yours', and rolled his optics. The little bastard-con had been at it for an hour; how long did it _take_!? He was brought out of his thoughts with a small transforming sound, and then Frenzy came into view, lazily walking up to Barricade like nothing had happened. The soft sounds from the sodomy area, however, confirmed otherwise.

Barricade's curiosity got the best of him, and he quietly got up to go survey the damage himself. He walked over to the area and leaned down to look at the boy.

Sam had scratches all over his now completely nude body; well, not completely. His shirt sleeves were still covering his forearms while the rest of it was ripped to pieces and littered all around him. His bound wrists were red and almost bleeding from the restraints around them, and there was blood between his legs and down his thighs. His face, unscratched, was however bruised and tear-streaked.

Pitiful sounds like none Barricade ever heard before emitted from the poor creature before him. He almost felt sorry for the boy, but nonetheless had to admit Frenzy did to a hell of a job on him.

He snapped to attention when Sam's face turned to him, his eyes red and full of tears. Sam stared at him for a moment before—Barricade couldn't really believe it—reaching his bound hands out to him.

"H-help me…" came that pitiful sound that made his audio receptors ache. "P-please…"

Barricade backed up from the human, not wanting to see or hear anymore. Seeing a tortured Autobot was one thing—he'd been seeing that for thousands of years. Seeing a small, fragile, helpless thing like this creature before him—it wasn't quite…right…

"…Don't go…." He almost didn't catch it. "…please…!" He paused, looked at the boy again, let out something between a sigh and a growl and used a retractable blade in his hand to cut the wrist restraints apart. Seeing that his hands were no longer bound, Sam wrapped his arms around himself and curled up in a pitiful attempt to preserve whatever modesty he had left. Barricade knew that the Autobots would be looking for him soon, and knew now was the time to leave. He turned around, paused again, then took something the size of a tennis ball out of his chest, fiddled with it, then laid it next to Sam, transformed into police car, and drove off, letting Frenzy jump in through the open window en route.

**PB**

"Optimus!"

Optimus turned his focus on Ratchet's voice over his comm. link. "What is it, Ratchet?" he asked.

"I have a Decepticon tracking signal, five and a half miles, west!"

No one had to be told twice; they made a left at the next turn and followed the signal. Ironhide had Lennox and Epps, Ratchet had Maggie and Glen, and Bumblebee had Mikaela in tow, and every single one of them were on edge about Sam. They'd been driving for nearly two hours, and were becoming more and more anxious. The sun had set an hour ago, and now it would be even harder to find Sam.

"Closing in on the signal," Ratchet said, driving through the wooded, secluded area. He slowed down and had Maggie and Glen look out the windows for any sign of anything—human or Decepticon.

"What even makes you think Sam could be—?"

"_Oh my GOD!!!_"

Everyone screeched to a halt at the sound of Maggie screaming. She practically leapt out Ratchet's window and ran in the direction of something lying on the ground about forty feet away. The humans piled out of the vehicles to allow them to transform, and they watched as Maggie slowly reached out for the figure on the ground.

"…Sam…?" she said softly. Her fingertips touching his shoulder might as well have been a branding iron; as soon as she made contact, Sam began to shriek and scramble away from her, his arms and legs tucked close to his body for protection.

"_DON'T TOUCH ME!!!_" he screamed at her, and everyone else who had come running at the sound of him screaming. Mikaela ran up and knelt beside him, but not touching.

"Sam!" she said quietly, but urgently. "Sam, it's me! You're okay…you're safe now…"

Sam eyed them all warily with wide, tear-filled eyes, then suddenly began to cry. He buried his face in his hands and let out a gut-wrenching sob. "Oh _God_!" he shrieked into his hands. "Oh God, don't look at me…!" His body curled up tighter into itself. "…Don't look at me…!"

Mikaela burst into tears as Ratchet carefully stepped forward to do a medic body scan. When he finished, Optimus saw him trembling. "Oh, Sam…"

……**Full of so much angst, I'm hearing Hawthorn Heights in the background…eh, gets better…I hope… **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3- Trauma**

It had taken nearly half an hour to get Sam to calm down and lie down safely in Ratchet. Maggie knew what had happened the moment she saw Sam, and only felt worse when Ratchet had gone silent after he scanned Sam. The boy wouldn't let anyone else but Maggie and Mikaela anywhere near him, and even then, he preferred Maggie.

Ratchet drove as fast as he could without endangering his cargo toward the hospital where a human friend of his worked. "Maggie!" he said urgently. "Use your cell phone and call this number. Tell him I'm coming from the south entrance!" Maggie obeyed, and relayed the number Ratchet gave her.

"Hello…?" came a male voice on the other end.

"Hello, my name is Maggie Madsen!" Maggie said urgently, keeping an eye on Sam. "Ratchet told me to call you!"

"What's the emergency?" the man said without a pause.

"We have a seriously injured friend on our way—Ratchet said meet him by the south entrance!"

"I'll have assistance when you arrive," the man said, then hung up. Maggie flipped her phone shut and put it back in her purse.

"Friend of yours, Ratchet?" she asked.

"Yes," he said, taking a left. "He's the only one who knows about me in the entire hospital. Bit of a mistake, on my part, but he's been good about keeping me a secret."

That was all about that subject, so Maggie turned her attention back to Sam, who was sobbing and shaking badly. She tucked the blanket Ratchet had with him snugger around him and gently brushed his hair with her fingers in a calming manner. He in turn kept a death grip on her jacket.

After what seemed like days, the hospital came into view, along with a man in his late twenties, who stood just outside the entrance. Ratchet stopped, and he climbed into the driver's seat, then looked behind him at Maggie, Mikaela, and Sam.

"What happened?" he asked as Ratchet drove on toward the waiting medics.

"Deep scratch wounds all over his body, and…" Ratchet paused, which confused the man. Ratchet never wavered in telling the facts. "…severe rectal tearing."

The man shook his head. "God damn…" He looked up. "The medics will take if from here, Ratch'." Ratchet stopped in front of the medics, who opened his back doors and carefully took Sam, who had passed out from the trauma, out and put him on a gurney.

"What's the story with this one, Ben?" one of the medics asked the man in the driver's seat.

"Rape victim," Ben said shortly. He saw some of the medics looking at Mikaela and Maggie. "Friends who found him," he answered. That was that, and the medics took Sam into the hospital.

As soon as they were gone, Optimus called Ratchet via comm. link. "Ratchet, we need you," he said. Ratchet nodded, closed his back doors, and drove off toward the lookout point to meet up with the others, the girls very quiet and near tears in the back.

As soon as they arrived, the girls hopped out and allowed Ratchet to transform. "Well?" Optimus asked urgently. Ratchet was quiet.

"He's in the hands of the human medics now," he said solemnly. "He lost consciousness just before we arrived." He broke off when Mikaela burst into tears.

"It's all my fault!" she yelled, burying her face in her hands. "It's my fault he's been…!" She broke off, unable to say it. "If…if I hadn't broken up with him…!"

"That's enough!" Optimus said harshly, making her look up. "What happened was _not _your fault! It was the Decepticons'. You had nothing to do with Sam being—!"

"_Don't say it_!" Mikaela screamed, now covering her ears. "I don't want to hear it!"

Optimus fell silent, at her request. "It was _not_ your fault," he repeated. He turned to Ironhide. "We found something near Sam when we found him," he changed the subject. Ironhide stepped forward and presented a small object in his palm. Optimus picked it up carefully with two fingers. "It's a homing signal," he explained to everyone else. "Whoever did this to Sam _wanted_ us to find him."

"But…" Glen spoke up, "…who actually…_did_ it?" Maggie's face hardened.

"I'll give you one guess who's small enough to do it," she said. Glen paled at the mention of the little Decepticon who nearly shuriken-ed his head off back at the Hoover Dam.

"Damn…" he muttered.

"I believe Barricade was with Frenzy," Ironhide said. "He must've abducted Sam while he was alone."

"And planted the homing signal," Ratchet added. He resisted the urge to hit and/or throw something over the lookout. There was a moment of silence, in which everyone thought about Sam and what they were going to do next.

The silence was broken by Maggie's cell phone. She really didn't want to talk to anyone, but when she looked at the top screen, she saw the same number that Ratchet gave her and answered it. "Hello…?"

"Is this Ratchet's friend?" Ben said.

"Yes, this is. Is anything wrong?" Maggie answered.

"No, not at the moment. The kid woke up just after you left and had a small fit, but we sedated him. I need to know his parents' number so I can call them."

Maggie looked at Mikaela. "He needs Sam's home phone number," she told her. Mikaela shook her head.

"Sam's parents went away for Spring Break," she said, her eyes tearing again. "They wont be back for about a week!"

Maggie sighed and turned back to her conversation. "His parents went away for Spring Break," she said. There was silence.

"Is there anyone who can take care of him?" Ben asked. Maggie looked at Will Lennox, the one who lived closest to Sam.

"I'll get back to you on that," she said. Sam said he'd hear from her and hung up. She turned to address the Captain. "Sam needs to have somewhere to stay until his parents get back," she said. Will got the gist and nodded.

"I'll be happy to take him in," he said. "I'm sure Sarah wouldn't mind, either."

There was more silence.

"What're we going to do now?" Glen said. Everyone knew he was talking about what to do until Sam was discharged from the hospital.

"C'mon, kids," Optimus said, transforming into a semi-truck. "I'll take you two home." Glen and Maggie got in and gave Mikaela and the two soldiers a sad look before Optimus drove off. The remaining humans and Autobots watched until Optimus was out of sight, then the silence was broken by a loud metallic scream from Bumblebee.

"Bumblebee, calm down!" Ratchet said, putting his hands on Bee's shoulders. Bee threw him off, grabbed a small tree, uprooted it, and threw it over the lookout with another scream.   
"Bumblebee, stop!" This time, Ironhide grabbed the yellow Autobot and held him in place, though hard it was. Bumblebee kept shrieking and cursing in Cybertronian. "No, it _wasn't_ your fault, Bee!" Ratchet knew Ironhide called Bumblebee 'Bee' when it was an emergency like this. "I wasn't your fault. "

Bumblebee stopped struggling and turned to bury his head in Ironhide's shoulder, making pained sounds Mikaela hadn't heard since Sector 7 captured him. Ironhide put a comforting hand on Bee's back, between his 'wings'. "We'll get them, Bee," Ironhide said. "We'll get them, for Sam."

**Ah, okay. Next chapter gets my whole storyline point started. 'Till then…**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4- Foreboding 

It took all but a few days for Sam to recover—physically, that is. Captain Will had visited and asked Sam if he wanted to stay with him for awhile. Sam had stared into space for a moment before nodding. He was discharged the next day. Ironhide stopped by Sam's house to allow the boy to pick up some clothes and his dog, but Bumblebee insisted on taking Sam. Ironhide was all too glad to let Bee drive Sam and 'the rodent', and after Sam was safely strapped in his passenger side, Bee activated a hologram form and followed Ironhide and Will to the Lennox household.

Sam was reasonably quiet the whole way there. He just stared out the window, hardly blinking at all and clutching his bag of clothes close to his chest. Bumblebee wanted so badly to say something, but what was there to say, he wondered. He was afraid to talk via radio, or even in English, for that matter, for fear of scaring Sam, or setting him off. Even Mojo was silent, as though sensing his master was in mental agony. The Chihuahua just curled up in a tiny ball in the backseat and remained motionless and silent.

After what seemed like an eternity of driving in the outskirts of anywhere, the Lennox house came into view, and Bee's hologram form let out a silent sigh of relief. "We're here, Sam," he said softly, barely more than a whisper. Sam nodded and unbuckled his seatbelt when Bumblebee came to a halt. Will stood a small distance away to give Sam some space as he got out of the Camaro.

Sarah Lennox came out of the house, a worried smile on her face. Sam walked over to the couple and gave them the most pleasant smile he could muster. "Um…" he said slowly. "…Thank you for letting me stay here…"

Sarah smiled and put a hand gently on his shoulder. "You're always welcome here," she said. "Come on, I'll show you to the guest room." Sam let her lead him into the house, where a baby Annabelle was playing with—Sam found to no surprise—a black toy truck. He had to smile at that. Sarah noticed. "She's fascinated with Ironhide," she said, smiling. "Sometimes I see her poking at that truck, trying to get it to transform."

Sam let out a snort of poorly restrained laughter, the first time in over a week. He followed Sarah up the stairs to a small bedroom for him. She let him look around for a bit. "Just let me know if you need anything," she said, turning to leave.

"Thank you," Sam said, giving her a smile. She smiled back and went back downstairs. Sam went over to the window and saw Ironhide and Bumblebee transform. Sarah came out a moment later with Annabelle in her arms. He smiled when he saw the one-and-a-half year-old hold her arms out to Ironhide and scream "'Hide! 'Hide!" happily.

After watching Will and his family for a minute, Sam felt a small pain in his heart. He unconsciously rubbed his chest through his shirt, but it didn't go away. He figured it was just the happy sight, so he turned away to unpack his clothes and put them away in the small dresser drawers. When that was done, he turned to the bed to take a nap. Just as he laid down, a sharp pain ran from his heart to his navel in one quick flash, then was gone just as fast. It didn't stop him from crying out, though. He breathed heavily, waiting for it to happen again, but it didn't. He pegged it off as a side-effect of the medication he just got off of, and laid down to sleep.

PB 

Sam found that living at the Lennoxes was a lot more calming than home. Sarah was a fan of big family meals, and he quickly became a fan of her cooking. Will spent a lot of his time on the computer, with Annabelle, or Ironhide. Sometimes, all three at once. Sam discovered Ironhide's weakness for the little girl, as he would spend hours watching her while she played outside. The weapons specialist seemed to have developed a sixth sense for trouble, because he was always there a split second before Annabelle would fall or do something remotely hazardous to her health.

Two days after arriving, Sam and Will made a fun day of washing and waxing their respective guardians. As the day progressed, Sam felt that he was coming out of whatever hole he had crawled in; cured, in a sense. It was fun to chase the vehicles around with the hose, and it was funny that Ironhide was uncomfortable around the upholstery vacuum.

One of the things Sam was most grateful for was that the 'incident' was never mentioned. Sarah, Will, Ironhide, and Bumblebee just gave him care and love—Sam was amused at the 'Ironhide caring and loving' part—and that alone made him feel healed.

It all seemed to end too soon. Spring Break was coming to an end, and Sam would have to go home and tell his parents about what happened. Just the thought of it made him very quiet at the dinner table. Sarah noticed right away.

"Are you alright, Sam?" she asked, her voice laced with concern. Sam didn't know whether to nod or shake his head.

"I'm just thinking of what I'm going to tell my parents," he said softly. He heard Will put his silverware down. "I mean, what _do _I tell them? That a robot did this to me?" He sighed and put his head in his hands. "It was bad enough, telling them about Bumblebee; this is going to ensure that I'll _never_ be able to see the Autobots again! They'll think they're dangerous or something!" His eyes shot open. "Oh, God…" he choked. "What if they make me get rid of Bumblebee!?"

Sarah got out of her seat and gently put her arms around Sam, who didn't even flinch. "No one can make you get rid of Bumblebee," she said soothingly. "If you want, we'll be there with you to let your parents know you've been taken good care of."

Sam sniffed and nodded. "Could you do that?" he asked, looking at Will. Will nodded.

"Of course," he said. Sam felt a lot better now. But the worst was still yet to come. He could feel it.

PB 

The day to go home came, and Sam was dreading every minute of it the whole ride home. He had called home to let his parents know he'd been at a friend's place the whole time, and that he had something important to tell them.

He finally found himself in his driveway, and his heart seemed to go a million miles a minute. Holding Mojo close to him and making sure the Lennoxes were behind him to back him up, he went inside.

"Sam! You're home!" his mother said, walking over to hug him. He cautiously hugged her back. "You look pale," she suddenly said, holding his face in her hands. "Are you okay? You said you had something important to tell us."

Sam swallowed hard and opened his mouth to say something, but then Mikaela poked her head in through the no-quite-closed front door. "Oh!" she said, her face reddening. "Am…I interrupting…?"

Sam shook his head and beckoned her in with a hand gesture. "Come on in, Mikaela," he said flatly. "I think I'm gong to need your help with what I have to tell them." Mikaela instantly knew what he was talking about, and her face paled. She stepped in the house and shut the door behind her.

"Sam, what's going on?" his dad said, looking worried. Sam sighed and swallowed again, feeling the urge to puke. He looked at the Lennoxes, then Mikaela, and then at the black and yellow cars out front.

"…You guys might want to sit down for this," he said.

PB 

Silence. Dead, screaming silence echoed through Sam's ears as he registered the expressions on his parents' faces. His father's face was void of any emotion, and his mother looked too pale for her health. Will and Sarah looked grim, and Annabelle, sensing the tension in the room, stayed silent in Sarah's arms. Mikaela looked about ready to burst into tears again.

His mother was the first to speak. "…W…what…?" she said, her voice wavering. Sam bit his lip and clenched his hands together tightly, his long sleeves hiding the marks from the restraints.

"I…I was…raped…over the vacation…." he choked out once more, feeling more than ever like throwing up. As soon as he said it again, Mikaela burst out crying into her hands. His mother's hands slowly covered her mouth as tears formed in her eyes. His father still said and did nothing.

"B-but…_how_…!?" his mother gasped. Sam covered a face with one hand.

"I don't think I have to explain the diagnostics to you!" he snapped, feeling like he was crawling back into his little hole. He forced himself to calm down enough to speak again. "I was…raped…and then taken to the hospital. I'm…okay now…and Will and Sarah let me stay with them until you got back…They've been really good to me, and I'm…I think I'm getting better now…"

More silence.

"Who was it?" His father decided to speak. Sam paled and decided that telling them the whole truth would be a big mistake.

"I don't know," he said softly. "I was just abducted…it was dark, so I…didn't see…" He paused. "Mikaela and the others found me and took me to the hospital…and I'm going to be okay…"

"How are you going to be okay, Sam!?" his father yelled, tears in his own eyes. "You were _raped_ for God's sake! _How _can you just say you're going to be okay!?"

Mikaela let out another sob before running right out of the house. Sam stared after her, his panic levels rising. He felt a sharp pain in his chest again, much like the one back at Will's house.

"You don't need to keep telling me!" he shouted, trying to keep the panic down. "I was fucking _there_!"

His father rounded on Will. "Where were you when this happened?!" he demanded. Sam shot up out of his seat.

"Don't you _dare_ blame him for _anything_!" Sam screamed. "None of it was his fault! He was kind enough to let me stay with him, so don't even—!" He broke off with a howl of pain as his chest—more accurately, his heart—flashed with pain that ran to his navel again. He gasped in pain and fell to his knees, one hand on his heart and the other arm around his waist. He vaguely heard panicked voices before promptly falling out of consciousness.

**Mmm…Red Bull…Oh! That chapter done already…? Huh….**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5- Suspicions 

After Sam's panic episode, his parents left the situation unspoken for fear of more trauma. His mother stopped drinking altogether, and gave him a comforting hug nearly every time she saw him. His father was mostly silent and couldn't seem to look him in the eye. It bothered Sam a little, but he knew it was better than talking about it constantly.

Spring Break ended and Sam convinced his parents that he was ready to go to school. Nobody knew about the incident, so he figured he could just get through the rest of the short school year, graduate, and leave the past behind him. So Monday came, and Sam said goodbye to his parents, climbed into Bee, and headed off for school. Sam noticed it was a little too quiet.

"You alright, Bee?" he asked. "You're really quiet today." He smiled at the dashboard. "You got anything to wake me up?" There was short static, then some techno he recognized as Cascada sang out _"I still hear your voice when you sleep next to me…I still feel your touch in my dreams…"_ "Sap…" he said good-naturedly. He pulled into the student parking lot and took out the keys. The only reason he even carried them around was because the car alarm key chain let Bumblebee know if there was an emergency.

**"You sure you'll be alright today?"** Bee asked softly. Sam nodded and took out his backpack.

"I'll be fine, Bee," he said. He held up the key chain. "If anything goes wrong, you'll be the first to know, okay?" He patted the steering wheel and got out. "I'll see you in a few hours, Bee." With that, he left Bumblebee in the parking lot and went to first period calculus.

PB 

Although no one knew of the Spring Break incident, it didn't mean no one gave him a hard time. Especially Trent, who kept at him because Mikaela broke up with him. Sam tuned it out as best he could, but since Mikaela had different classes than him this year, he didn't have anyone to talk to. Lunch was the only time they shared, and that was near the end of the day.

Lunch finally came, and he sat in one corner of the outside cafeteria. He was soon joined by Mikaela. "Hey, Mikaela, what's up?" he asked, giving her a smile. She gave him a wary smile and pulled out some M&Ms.

"Want some?" she asked. Sam nodded, and she gave him a few. He began eating some, but then stopped and stared at one. "Sam? What's wrong…? She looked at the M&M in his fingers. It was a blue one. It took her a moment to get the connection. "Sam, I'm so sorry…!"

"It's okay, 'Kaela," Sam said, putting it down. "It's okay…" That time, it sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

"Hey, Mikaela!" They both turned to see Trent and a few guys behind him. "What're you still hanging around Wicky here for? I thought he was too much of a loser…"

"Shove it up your ass, Trent!" To Trent's surprise, it was Sam who said it. He glared at the smaller boy, who was fiddling with a blue M&M in his fingers. He stalked right up to Sam and got in his face.

"Want to repeat that, Wittlewick?" he drawled. Sam glared at him.

"It's _Witwicky_," Sam spat right back. "And yes, I will repeat it—shove. It. Up. Your. Ass." Sam, though talking well enough, used his other hand to finger the emergency key chain button. "I don't really care what you think of me, but I'd rather you say it outside of my hearing range, _thank you_." His fingers crushed the peanut M&M before standing up and walking away not really caring if Trent or his goons followed him. His feet led him to the library.

He grinned inwardly. This was the _last_ place Trent would be. He walked past the librarian who was busy with the computer, and amused himself by looking at the books as he passed by them. One particular title caught his eye—**Working With Metal**. He pulled the book out from the shelf and flipped through it. He supposed it was a hobby book for the metal shop class, but it was pretty interesting. He imagined making miniature metal models of everyone, his smile getting wider with every chapter.

The end-of-lunch bell ringing brought him out of La La Land, and he tucked the book under his arm and made his way to the check-out desk. The librarian took a moment to notice him. "Yes?" she asked. Sam held the book out to her.

"I'd like to check this out," he said. She took the book and scanned it.

"Your card," she said. Sam took his wallet out of his pocket and took his school library card out. As he handed it to her, a sharp throb pulsated through his abdomen, making him gasp and drop it on the desk; both his hands flying to the throbbing area. "Are you okay?!" the librarian asked urgently, rushing over to the other side of the desk. Sam shook his head, which resulted in suddenly becoming dizzy and nauseous. He slumped against her desk, his face going five shades paler, and vaguely heard a familiar urgent voice before blacking out.

PB 

When he came to, Sam found that he was in the nurse's office bed. He sat up and winced when his head spun momentarily. Soft voices from the other side of the door caught his attention, and he slowly got out of the bed to see what was going on.

His worried parents, accompanied by Mikaela, were talking to the school nurse. It took all but a second for them to realize he was standing in the doorway. "What happened?" he asked weakly. His mother rushed over and hugged him.

"You blacked out in the library," Mikaela informed, her face slightly pale. "I helped get you to the nurse's office."

"Thanks," Sam said, resting against his mother's shoulder weakly. "Can I go home?" he asked his parents. "I just don't feel up for the rest of the day."

"School's already out," Mikaela said, looking at the clock on the wall. "You've been out for over an hour." Sam groaned.

"Great," he muttered. The nurse handed Sam's father a piece of paper before turning to him.

"I would feel better if you stayed home tomorrow, too," she said. "I also suggest seeing a doctor, just to be sure nothing serious is wrong." Sam nodded. 'I can always see Ratchet,' he thought. 'He qualifies as a doctor.' He turned to leave with his parents, then stopped short.

"What about…?" he began, but Mikaela knew what he was talking about.

"I got a ride to school with some friends," she said. "I'll drive Bee—your car—home." Sam sighed with relief and handed Mikaela the keys in his pocket.

"Thanks again," he said, giving her an exhausted smile. She smiled back and gave him a small hug.

"You just get better," she said. He nodded and let his parents lead him out to their car.

The ride home was quiet and eventless. Sam spent that time looking out the window and unconsciously flexing his fingers over his abdomen, as though just anticipating another jolt of pain. It didn't come, and he was relieved to be home. He walked up to his room and flopped down on his bed. "My life sucks…" he mumbled into his pillow.

Mojo whimpered and pawed at the side of his bed, sensing his master's angst. Sam smiled and picked the small dog up and set him on the bed. "Glad to see you care," he said. Mojo yipped once and curled up in a little ball. "Good plan." Sam kicked off his shoes and took off his jacket before snuggling into the pillow and finding sleep.

**The biggest shocker is yet to come! Stay tuned! …Not my words, I'm watching some show I don't know what the hell about… Nevertheless…**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6- Trouble 

To Sam's surprise, there were no more pain attacks for the rest of the month and a half of school left. His parents, Mikaela, and the Autobots just figured it to be panic attacks left over from the incident, and that they just went away. Well, almost all the Autobots. Ratchet and his 'sixth medic sense' told him that something was amiss with Sam, but Sam kept assuring him everything was fine.

Through the last week of school and graduation, Ratchet's 'medic sense' was tingling so badly, he almost forbade Sam to attend graduation, for fear something was going to happen. He had been keeping an exceedingly close eye on the boy since the incident, and recently began noticing changes. For one, the boy's hormones were strange. Sam also appeared to be a little more tired than usual. The strangest thing, Ratchet noticed, was the scent that Sam emitted. No one else but him noticed it, but even with millennia of medic experience under his metaphorical belt, he never encountered this kind of scent. It was vaguely familiar, but nothing he could place.

Graduation, as far as the Autobots heard, went without a hitch. When it was all over, Sam told his parents he wanted to spend his post-graduation evening with the Autobots. Mikaela was joining him. Bumblebee was waiting in the parking lot, and was somewhat amused that the graduation robes were yellow. (Sam had thrown on a black collared shirt to pay homage to his best friend's theme color.)

**"So, how was the graduation?" **Bumblebee asked after Sam and Mikaela were buckled in.

"Kinda boring," Sam admitted. "My parents have it on tape, if you ever want to watch."

**"Maybe later,"** Bee said, revving the engine. **"The others are waiting for us at the base."**

"'The base'?" Mikaela repeated. "You guys have a base now?"

**"Yes,"** Bee said. **"Not too far from the lookout, actually. It's an old abandoned airfield hanger big enough for all of us. Ratchet has his own 'lab' in a smaller hanger next to it. We're planning on hollowing out the small mountain next to it to expand."**

"Neat," Sam said. "Cant wait to see it."

There was a small silence, then Mikaela spoke up.

"Are you planning on going to college, Sam?" she asked. Sam paused for a moment.

"I really don't know," he said. He smiled suddenly. "Maybe I'll go to the Autobot University and major in Robo-biology!"

Mikaela snorted and playfully smacked her hand on Sam's stomach, then cried out in surprise.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked, worried. Mikaela rubbed her hand and looked at him, confused.

"Your stomach," she said slowly. "It's _hard_. I mean, like 'smacking Bee on the hood of the car' hard…"

Sam let Bee drive to examine his stomach, which he hadn't paid attention to since it stopped hurting. Mikaela pulled up his shirt and poked it. "That tickles!" Sam said, squirming away.

"I was right…" Mikaela said. She poked it again, and Sam noticed that the skin didn't go dent like it should. "Sam, what's wrong with your stomach?" She looked up and saw Sam's confused expression.

"…I don't know," he said. "I never noticed it before…" He looked at the dashboard. "…You okay, Bee?"

Bumblebee was silent for a moment. **"You need to have Ratchet examine you, Sam,"** he said. **"I mean it."**

And for once, Sam completely agreed.

PB 

Indeed as Bumblebee said, the empty hanger was big enough for all of the Autobots to use as a sort of living room. But Sam and Mikaela didn't have a chance to get comfortable before Bee transformed and went straight to Ratchet. Sam saw Bee murmur something to Ratchet in Cybertronian, and Ratchet look at Sam with surprise and apprehension.

"Sam, please come with me," he said in that 'doctor' tone. Sam gave everyone a glance before following Ratchet out one hanger and into another. Sam gawked at all the equipment he'd never seen or heard of before. Ratchet motioned for Sam to lie on an oversized gurney-type thing, which he did after taking his shirt off.

Ratchet started by gently poking Sam's stomach with a fingertip. Unlike the soft stomach flesh he should've felt, he, like Bee described, felt a strange hardness under the skin. He made a soft sound and turned to a large device that looked like the specimen's view of a microscope. "What's that…?" Sam questioned, staring at it. Ratchet ignored him and put it over Sam's torso.

"Stay perfectly still," he instructed. Sam didn't object when Ratchet turned to switch something on. A loud whirring hum resounded, startling Sam, but he remained motionless as instructed. After a moment of waiting, the whirring stopped and Ratchet moved the thing away, making a confused 'hm' sound.

"…Is there something wrong?" he questioned, sitting up. Ratchet pushed Sam back into a lying position.

"Let's try something else, then…" Ratchet said, mostly to himself. He switched another few somethings Sam couldn't see and the same device was moved over him again, only with a different-looking lens or something. A stronger whirring sound came, and Sam felt slightly prickly. But again, he didn't move.

A few seconds later, he heard Ratchet say something in Cybertronian and turn it off. "Stay put!" he said urgently and stuck his head out the hanger door. "Optimus! I need you in here! Not you, Bumblebee, stay put!" He pulled his head back in and put a hand to it, exasperated. Sam stared at him, suddenly feeling panicked. Optimus came in a few moments later.

"What is it, Ratchet?" he demanded. Ratchet pointed to a screen the size of a plasma big-screen TV with two different pictures on it, quite unable to say anything. Optimus took one look at it and Sam saw his optics widen. "That…that's not possible, Ratchet!" he stuttered. "He…he_ cant_…!"

"What the hell is wrong with me!?" Sam shouted, really getting scared.

"I took a look at his insides with a regular x-ray," Ratchet said, ignoring him. "But there was something completely covering his stomach…" He pointed to the one on the right, obviously Sam's torso, but with a large white spot over his stomach. "…Then I retook it with our ray, and…" He pointed to the second one, which had, Sam saw, a large, unrecognizable shapeless shape where his heart should be, and an even smaller one just like it where the large white area had been in the first picture.

"_Someone tell me what the fuck is going on_!!!" Sam hollered, fully panicking at what was so obviously a big deal. Both Autobots looked at the boy, as though just realizing he was there. Optimus looked at Ratchet, who looked like he was thinking about how to tell him.

"Sam…" Ratchet began, stepping over to the screen. He pointed to the first one. "This is your stomach area, here," he said, pointing to the large white area. "…And this…" His fingers encircled the white area. "…is metal." Sam stared at it, then blinked. Ratchet took that as a cue to continue. "This…" he said with a slight choke pointing to the shape on his heart. "…was taken with a ray to see our insides, rather than taking ourselves apart to see what's wrong. That…" His finger trembled over the area. "…is a spark."

Sam stared at him. "…What…?" he finally said. "…I have a…what…?" Ratchet's finger, still trembling, trailed lower on the picture to the smaller shape.

"…And…and that…" His voice quivered. "…is _another_ spark…"

**And I leave it here!!! MUAHAHAHAHAhacking coughHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7- Shock 

Sam stared at Ratchet, not quite comprehending what exactly the medic was saying. "…I have…_what_ in me…?" he demanded, glad he was lying on something firm. Ratchet remained silent for a moment, looking at Optimus as though for support. He finally sighed and turned back to Sam.

"You have a spark, Sam," he said, his voice firmer now. "It's residing in your heart. It was probably put there by the Allspark when you put it in Megatron's chest. The transaction was so quick, you wouldn't have noticed it. And it's undetectable without the special x-ray, or unless we open our chests." He paused to let it sink in. "…and you also have a smaller, underdeveloped spark residing inside of you; along with…" He pointed at the smaller shape in his stomach again, and this time Sam noticed a small mass of metal around it. "…what also looks like an underdeveloped…Transformer…"

Sam blinked again, and was silent. Without notice, he suddenly leaned over the edge of the gurney and emptied his stomach contents onto the floor. After a few more moments of retching, he sat up and wiped his mouth, tears in his eyes. "Oh…_god_…" he gasped. "You…you mean to tell me I'm _pregnant_ with a Transformer!?"

Ratchet was silent. After a moment, "In essence…yes." Sam hurked again, putting a hand over his mouth. This time, pureed stomach contents stayed put.

"…Oh god…" Sam repeated, slowly lying down in fetal position, his eyes wide and teary. "Oh god oh god oh god…This…this isn't right….it's just…." He burst into tears. "…not right…"

Optimus turned to Ratchet and beckoned him closer.

**"How could this have happened?"** he said softly in Cybertronian. Ratchet shook his head.

**"I don't want to think about it,"** he said with a hint of disgust, **"but I believe it had something to do with…Frenzy." **Optimus let out a small growl at the mention of the tiny Decepticon. **"My guess is, during the…sodomizing…Frenzy must have left something inside of him, and Sam's spark reacted to it. Somehow, it created a new spark, and a Transformer to go with it."**

Optimus shook his head, looking over at the shaking, crying boy. **"What do we do now?" **he asked Ratchet. The medic shook his head again.

**"It's up to him," **he said. **"I personally would like to see exactly what happens, but I know the final decision is up to Sam whether or not to terminate."**

The Autobot leader sighed. **"I don't think Sam should leave here tonight,"** he said. **"He should stay here for awhile so you can look after him." **The medic nodded and pulled a blanket out of the corner for whenever the kids might stay and put it over the shaking boy. He turned to leave when Sam spoke up, startling both Autobots.

"…Look after me for what…?"

PB 

Bumblebee was spastic by the time Optimus and Ratchet returned. Mikaela and Ironhide were trying to calm him down, but all he wanted was to know if Sam was alright. He saw his leader and stomped right up to him.

"What's wrong with him!?" he demanded, his voice glitching slightly. "What's wrong with Sam!?" Optimus was silent. Bumblebee turned to Ratchet, who was better at bearing bad news. "What's wrong with Sam?" he asked again. Ratchet shook his head with an air of disbelief.

"Well," he began, "to start with, Sam has a spark." He paused for that tidbit of information to process. Bumblebee and Ironhide looked gobsmacked and Mikaela looked confused.

"Wait," she said, holding up a hand. "_How_ can Sam have a spark?" Ratchet shifted uncomfortably and looked at Optimus.

"We theorize that when the Allspark was being destroyed in Megatron's chest," Optimus said, "it created one last spark that now resides in Sam's heart." He paused. "…But that's not all." He looked at Ratchet to indicate it was his turn to speak. Ratchet shifted uncomfortably again.

"The hardness in Sam's abdomen that Bumblebee described is a very thin layer of metal directly under the skin," he said. He paused before continuing. "…That layer of metal is housing…another spark."

This time, there was confusion all around. Mikaela was the first to blink as understanding began to seep into her brain.

"…Another spark…" she said slowly. "…another life…Ratchet…?" She looked at the medic with wide eyes. "…Does that mean…Sam has a Transformer inside of him…?!"

Ratchet nodded, almost glad he didn't have to say it himself. "Yes," he said. "It completely explains Sam's pains a couple of months ago. The spark in his heart was forming life, creating another spark in his abdomen. The pain in his stomach was the thin metal materializing in random intervals to house the underdeveloped spark…" He paused again. "…and the sparkling forming around it."

There was shocked silence all around the base. Ironhide swore in Cybertronian and Bumblebee look about ready to fall to the floor. Mikaela just looked sadly shocked.

"Oh, poor Sam," she said, putting a hand over her mouth. "What's going to happen to him?"

Ratchet shook his head. "It's up to him to decide that now," he said. "He can either carry the sparkling to maturity, or terminate. I cannot make that decision for him."

More silence resounded in the base, all thoughts of celebrating graduation forgotten.

"There's one more thing," Optimus suddenly said in a confused, pensive voice. He turned to Ratchet. "He understood us. He understood our language." Ratchet's optics widened in realization, when he remembered Sam asking what they had to look after him for. "I think that too may be the spark's influence; he can understand our language now."

"This is too much," Bumblebee said, shaking his head. He walked past Ratchet and Optimus. "This is far too much for him…" He ignored Ratchet's 'Don't-go-in-my-lab-unless-you're-dying' rule to check up on Sam. Ratchet let him, understanding the situation. Mikaela wrapped her arms around herself and sat down next to Ironhide, who had remained completely silent.

"What now?" she asked softly. There was more silence, which was broken a few moments later by Ironhide revving up his cannons.

"What are you doing?" Ratchet demanded. Ironhide growled and stomped toward the exit.

"I've gotta shoot something," he growled. "Primus help any police cars that pass this way…"

"I'll get him," Optimus said, walking after the enraged weapons specialist. He turned to Mikaela. "I need you to contact Sam's parents," he said solemnly. "Tell them Sam's condition flared up and it's something only we can take care of. I hope they believe us." That said, he left to calm Ironhide down.

Mikaela went outside as well, dialing Sam's house number en route, leaving Ratchet alone in the hanger. He stayed where he was for the moment before going back into his lab to see Bumblebee with Sam curled up in one hand while he gently stroked Sam's back with the other. The boy had both arms around one of his guardian's fingers and was crying into the warm metal.

Bumblebee was right, he realized. It was too much for Sam.

Meanwhile, in one corner of the base, a silver and blue CD/radio made a thoughtful clicking sound, transformed, and jumped out a window.

…**Don't cut off my Red Bull, please. I need it to write my crack. **


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8- Waiting 

Lucky for Sam, his parents believed Optimus, and after consulting with Ratchet on how Sam would need constant care and survelance, Sam moved into the Autobot base with Optimus and Ratchet. Ironhide had the Lennoxes to take care of, but he and Optimus—with the help of the new trailer the Autobot leader had acquired—assisted in moving Sam's things out the house and into the base where Ratchet had built Sam his own living space right next to the lab. To make the transaction easier, Bumblebee moved in with Optimus in the main base, and brought Mojo with him. (Ironhide made the Chihuahua ride with Bumblebee, as usual.)

The rest of the summer went without much to speak of. His parents called every day, Ironhide visited whenever he had time off, and Mikaela also visited with news that she'd been accepted to a college not too far so she could still visit on weekends.

Sam, though relieved nothing life-threatening was wrong with him, was still in a shallow but thick pool of depression. He had announced to Ratchet he intended on keeping the sparkling, but didn't know about what to _do _with it. Ratchet said he hadn't a clue in this particular case, either, but hoped to have a solution by the time the sparkling reached maturity, and said that with the current rate of development, there'd be plenty of time to figure one out.

And plenty of time, there was. The rest of the summer came and went, and fall ended before anyone knew it. Sam spent most of that time in Ratchet's lab, his previous joke with Mikaela about 'Autobot University' actually becoming a possibility. Ratchet taught him the basic Transformer anatomy, Cybertronian history—more in-depth than Bee's condensed version—and since Sam could understand Cybertronian, Ratchet gave him a crash-course in speaking it. Sam was most interested in the anatomy, though; especially when Ratchet had Ironhide 'volunteer' for a simple dissection after the weapons specialist tried to kill Mojo for 'lubricating' on him again. Sam guaranteed he was having more fun at Ratchet's 101 class than Mikaela at her college.

As winter set in, Sam began to notice strange changes in his abdomen. Much like a pregnant woman, his waistline expanded slightly, and he noticed that the area just behind his navel was warmer than normal. Ratchet told him that was the immature spark flowing life into the sparkling, which was slowly starting to take shape, as the Cybertronian x-ray showed. By the end of winter, Sam could actually make out extremely thin arms and legs, and the baby spark was becoming less visible as a body completely surrounded it.

Sam sent Mikaela pictures of it, putting them under the guise of 'artistic photo-editing'. Mikaela emailed back with lots of assuring words and proclamations of cuteness, which Sam found amusing.

After winter left and spring came into play, Sam's stomach had a major growth spurt of—Ratchet measured—11 inches in one month from the previous measurement of his normal 30-inch waistline, and then suddenly stopped growing. However, by that time, the sparkling inside of him grew suddenly active, turning and shifting around as it pleased. It didn't hurt, but it was a bitch to go to sleep with it occasionally thunking against the metal in his stomach.

On Valentine's Day, Mikaela dropped by for a surprise visit with a box of chocolates and a Chihuahua plushie. She was jealous of all the things Ratchet was teaching him, and joked about taking summer courses. Ratchet, not really seeing the joke, said she could take Sam's 'Autobot Anatomy 101' when her school let out. (Ironhide groaned when he heard that)

"So, how are you?" she asked Sam as he fiddled with his stuffed Chihuahua as the live one sniffed around the empty chocolate box. Sam shrugged.

"Okay, I guess," he said. "I mean, besides the obvious…" He pointed at his belly. Mikaela reached out and poked it, amazed at how hard it was.

"It's like soft metal," she said softly. "Kinda like poking a covered steering wheel…"

"I guess," Sam said. "I haven't gone for a drive anywhere for almost a whole year. I get to walk around the base and stuff, but I'm getting cabin fever _real_ fast."

"I'm sorry," Mikaela said softly. "But as soon as that baby Transformer is born, you can go out again!"

"I can actually see my parents again," Sam added. He looked at her sadly. "I still haven't told them the whole truth yet. They just think I'm still sick and contagious, or something like that…" He ran a hand through his hair, which he had neglected to cut for months. "How am I going to explain this…?"

Mikaela was silent. "I don't know," she said. "Start with, I don't know…bringing them here when it's born…and go from there." Sam shrugged again, then suddenly doubled over in pain, crying out as what felt like a razor was scratching against the metal lining the inside of his stomach. "Sam! What's wrong!?" Mikaela cried, putting her arms around him. Sam raised his head, his face contorted in agony.

"Call…Ratchet…!" he gasped, then let out a short scream. Mikaela ran to the base door.

"RATCHET!!!" she screamed. "SAM'S IN TROUBLE!!!"

…**End there, and delivery later! Yay, robo-delivery! **


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9- Birth 

All the Autobots came racing in at Mikaela's—and Sam's—screams. Ratchet took one look at Sam and picked him up carefully. "Everyone, stay put!" he shouted urgently over his shoulder. "I've got to get Sam properly strapped down, and—!"

"_Strapped down_!?" Sam yelled through his pain. "For _what_!?" Ratchet ignored him and carried him into the lab, where he gently laid him down on the metal gurney and gently secured a soft strap just over his protruding belly and another over his legs.

"This is just a precaution, Sam," Ratchet said softly, but rushing all the same. "I'm going to inject painkillers in you, but this is to make sure you stay perfectly still and I don't make a mistake."

"_Mistake_!?"

"Calm down!" Ratchet pulled out what looked like a modified Autobot-sized mechanical pencil, except what would be equivalent to the lead was a needle that was a liiiitle too big for Sam's taste. Ratchet sensed his discomfort. "It'll only hurt for a moment," he assured, sticking the needle into Sam's left shoulder. Sam immediately felt all pain leave him and felt slightly lightheaded. He heard some sounds near Ratchet's lab door.

"I said _out_!" Ratchet hollered, pointing to the door. Sam turned to see Bumblebee with Mikaela in hand standing at the door. Bee stood his ground.

"We deserve to be with Sam in this!" he said defiantly. Mikaela agreed with Bumblebee.

"Sam needs someone to be here for him," she said. Ratchet glared holes into the both of them, but neither moved.

"Uh, guys," Sam gasped, feeling a non-painful but ominous thump against his stomach. All three of them turned back to him. Ratchet sighed.

"Stay out of the way," he growled, picking up a thin rod. He pressed something on it, and a short, half-foot lazar shot out. Sam's eyes widened at the sight of it. "Calm down," Ratchet said again. He slowly brought the lazar scalpel to Sam's stomach and gently pressed.

All Sam felt was a slight pressure as the scalpel slowly sliced his stomach open, skin first. Sam watched, unable to look away, as Ratchet then took a pair of huge forceps and peeled away the stomach skin, revealing a thin sheet of metal underneath.

"Alright, Sam," Ratchet said, explaining what he was going to do to so Sam wouldn't panic. "I'm going to cut the metal into pieces so I can remove them and the sparkling safely without harming you." He picked the scalpel back up and slowly traced out a square, then sliced deeper to actually cut it. Again, all Sam felt was pressure as the slightly bloody metal was gently lifted up with the forceps.

"Oh, man…" Mikaela whispered, putting a hand over her mouth. Bumblebee remained completely silent, though his optics looked wider by the moment.

Ratchet completely removed the metal square, and magnified his vision so he could do what was next with the utmost care. With steady fingers only a medic could possess, he put the forceps into Sam and gently caught hold of something and lifted.

Sam's breathing hitched when he saw silver metal in a humanoid shape curled up being lifted out by the back with the forceps. When it was completely out of Sam's stomach, it slowly uncurled itself and raised its head. Sam's spark-filled heart pulsated strangely when it looked right at him.

The sparkling had overlarge optics a deep golden color that must've been from his brown-eyed genes. Its body was small with pencil-thin limbs and long, spider-like fingers splayed from small palms. The sparkling had a small mouth that opened and closed a few times as though to figure out how it worked, then let out a light, soft wail that sounded sweet. The thin arms reached out for Sam just as Ratchet moved to put it in a small metal basket to clean.

"No!" Sam said, feeling a pull at his spark-heart. He weakly reached out for it. "Give…give her to me…"

Ratchet gave him a confused look, but gently put the tiny sparkling in Sam's hands. The sparkling softly wailed again when Sam pulled it into his arms against his chest, then cuddled close to Sam's heart, gently rubbing its head across his it. Sam smiled weakly when it began to make cooing-click sounds that were so impossibly adorable.

"…Sam, did you just call it 'her'…?" Mikaela suddenly said. Sam blinked.

"….I did," he said. "I mean, I just know it's a 'her'…I can feel it…" He gently stroke the little sparkling's head, reveling in the sounds she made.

"She's adorable…" Mikaela said, smiling brightly from Bee's hands. Bumblebee tilted his head to the side and blinked.

"Indeed," he said. The sparkling girl let out what sounded like a clicky yawn and nuzzled deeper into Sam's chest, closing her large optics. Sam let out a sigh and closed his own eyes as Ratchet began to cut apart and pull out the rest of the metal womb, which was surprisingly small. Bumblebee saw that Sam now needed to rest and carried Mikaela out of Ratchet's lab to let the boy sleep and the medic sew Sam up.

"Is he alright?" Ironhide asked as they came back into the base. Mikaela had a look on her face Ironhide recognized from Annabelle as when one sees something absolutely amazing.

"You should see her!" Mikaela gushed. "She's so cute! She makes the most adorable sounds…!"

"Who's 'she'?" Ironhide demanded, confused. Bumblebee put a hand to his face and giggled. Yes, that's right. Giggled. Mikaela's smile grew wider.

"'She' is the sparkling," Bee said after recovering from his giggle fit. "It's a femme sparkling!"

"What does she look like?" Optimus asked, very interested. Mikaela held her hands apart about a foot and a half.

"She's about this big," she said excitedly, "and she's silver and she has these really cute, huge golden eyes, and—!"

"Calm down," Optimus said, holding up both hands. He turned to Bumblebee. "I know Ratchet wont let us in, Bumblebee. Care to elaborate?" Bee nodded and turned to the empty desk-like thing. He pressed a finger to his temple and his optics projected a hologram of what the little sparkling looked like.

"Wow…" Ironhide said, looking more closely at it. "She's almost as cute as Annabelle…" Bumblebee snerked and turned the projection off. "…What?!"

"Nothing, nothing…" Bee said innocently. But a bit of static, then Bee's radio blaring out a short _"…Daddy's little girl…"_ and turning it off quickly.

"Smart-aft," Ironhide growled. He shook his head. "Either way…the sparkling _is_…cute…" He glared at Bumblebee—_daring_ him to say something else. Bee snerked again, but said nothing.

Ratchet came in about an hour later. "Well, he's stitched up," he said sitting on a large makeshift chair. "The sparkling wont move from him. I suppose she's still receiving a sort of nourishment from his spark because hers is still underdeveloped."

"When will he wake up?" Mikaela asked, picking Mojo up. The dog yipped and licked her hand. Ironhide shifted away about two feet.

"When I deem him well enough to," Ratchet replied. "I have him now in a synthetic sleep to allow his body to recover. I estimate a week of synthetic sleep, then a month for a full recovery."

"That long?" Mikaela asked. Ratchet nodded.

"At least," he replied.

"And the sparkling?" Optimus inquired.

"I don't suggest moving her away from him until he's well," Ratchet said. "For some reason, Sam seems to know what she needs; like an instinct."

"Mothers have that," Mikaela absently remarked. The Autobots stared at her. "It's called 'maternal instinct'. Mothers—or anyone that happens to carry children—have an inner instinct that just…tells them what to do."

"Spark connection," Ratchet said. "It must be the spark connection. It's extremely rare; the only others with a spark connection we know of are the twins."

"Cool," Mikaela said. She petted Mojo once more before setting him down. "I've got to go; I promised my mom I'd stop by for dinner. Tell Sam I said hi and that his daughter is totally cute when he wakes up!" With that, she grabbed her backpack and headed out on her motorcycle. The Autobots were left alone once more.

"I have to get back to Will's," Ironhide said. "He needs me to babysit Annabelle for the evening so he and Sarah can go out." He transformed into a truck and drove out.

"What now?" Bumblebee asked, poking at a speck on his armor.

**Cute, eh? I'm giggling madly as we speak. And if you don't know who 'the twins' are, you should drown yourself in Bumblebee's 'lubricant'.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10- Truth**

As Ratchet had said, Sam stayed out for a full week, the little sparkling doing the same. When he came to, the full pain of the makeshift cesarian hit him like a semi-truck—no offense to Optimus Prime. The sparkling girl woke up when he did, looking at the much larger Transformers with huge, golden eyes that were—Ironhide said—very cute. Bumblebee fell desperately in love with the sparkling's cuteness, shamelessly giggling when she did something cute, like try to sit up fully on her own.

Ratchet chose not to conduct full experiments on the little sparkling, as Sam had grown far too attached to her. Instead, he did just enough to conclude some unique and startling information.

For one, the femme sparkling was physically Cybertronian, but from the way she was concieved and grew inside of Sam, her genes were unique in that her body automatically grew and developed on its own, just like a human. Also like a human, she was almost helpless in her infancy, and Sam had to hold her and support her just like a human baby. He learned that until her spark was completely self-sustaining, she would need to be near Sam almost 24-7 to get sustanance from his spark.

But the one thing on everyone's mind when Sam woke up was—what to name her?

Sam went silent when Bumblebee asked what her name was. He looked down at the cooing little sparkling in his arms and realized he had no clue what to name her. The thought didn't even really pass his mind. He told Bumblebee that he'd get back to him on it, and spent the rest of the day thinking. He figured he should give her a Cybertronian name—English translated, of course—in honor of her heritage, but he also wanted one that he could use in public—and in explaination to his parents—to avoid confusion.

He finally settled on a name (at least until she got old enough to pick her own name, Ironhide mentioned) that he found adequate in Cybertronian, but translated into something cute, but effective from her appearance—_Honeydew_. Bumblebee was enthralled with the name, and only when Mikaela came back over, did she see the irony in Bee's adoration for her.

The day finally came that Sam decided to bite the bullet and tell his parents the truth. All of it. Bumblebee and Mikaela went to go pick up Sam's parents while Sam stayed in his bed, the month of recovery not over for him. Honeydew—or Honey, for short—was in recharge at the moment, blissfully unaware of her surroundings. Her parent sat awake and nervous, awaiting the inevitable freaking out, as was the general normal for his parents. He really didn't want them to get upset, but he knew that as soon as they found out that the tiny Transformer in his arms was their only grandchild, the shit was going to hit the fan. Big time.

Bumblebee finally came back with Mikaela and his parents. Both his parents looked nervously anxious; they didn't know what was going on, only that Mikaela said that it was very important that they come to the base. The followed Mikaela into Sam's living space, where Sam was sitting up in bed, holding his still sleeping sparkling in his arms.

"Hey, Mom…Dad…" Sam said nervously, feeling his spark-heart thump rapidly. Honey must've felt it, too, because she chose then to wake up, letting out that adorable clicky-yawn and opening her optics to see the rest of the Witwicky family coming in.

"Sam!" his mother said, running up to him and hugging him softly. "We've been so worried about you! Did you ever figure out what was wrong?"

Sam swallowed hard and nodded, looking down at Honeydew, who was staring at Mrs. Witwicky with wide, wondering optics. Sam's mom looked down and saw the tiny sparkling, and blinked. "Sam…?" she began slowly. "…What is that?" Sam felt a little peeved at his mother calling Honeydew a 'that', but kept it hidden.

"This," he said, gently holding Honeydew up, "is Honeydew. _She's_ a hybrid of human and Cybertronian. She's just like a baby, but…y'know…like Bee and the other Autobots…" He waited to see if his parents would follow where this was going. It didn't. After a few moments, he sighed. "Mom, Dad," he said after pulling Honeydew close to him and swallowing hard again. "I didn't tell you the whole truth about…me getting…" He paused to let out the apprehension-stale breath. "…You know…"

His mother sat down on the edge of the bed worriedly. "What are you talking about, Sam?" she asked urgently. Sam felt tears welling up as he took another breath.

"The truth is, Mom and Dad…I know who raped me…and…" His voice hitched. "…and when they did…they….left something in me…" A tear ran down his face. His mother leaned over and put his head on her shoulder, careful not to rouse the sparkling, who was sensing her parent's distress and letting out little whines. "…I was raped by a Decepticon, Mom," Sam finally blurted out. "A small one; about my height. His—his name is Frenzy, and he's had it out for me since…since this whole thing started!" He turned his head and sobbed into his mother's shoulder while she cried and patted his back comfortingly. "And…!" Sam continued, just wanting to get this over with. "…and when he left something inside of me, my body reacted to it, and…" He pulled away from his mother and curled his arms tighter around the sparkling. "…and it created a new spark…a new life force inside of me…Honeydew…"

There was shocked silence. Neither Sam nor his parents spoke. Only the distressed small cries from the sparkling were audible, as Mikaela and the Autobots decided to leave the Witwickys to themselves.

"…So let me get this straight…" his father finally spoke up, his voice deadly grave. "You're telling me, that you were raped by a robot, and now…!" He gestured swiftly at Honeydew. "…_Now_ you find it appropriate to tell us you got _pregnant_ with a robot!? That's just perfect, Sam!"

Sam flinched at his father's tone, feeling more tears run down his face. Sam's mother shot up from the bed.

"That's enough!" she snapped. "Our son is in enough pain as it is!"

"Stop it!" Sam yelled, covering his face with one hand. "Just stop it!" Honeydew whimpered and curled up into Sam's chest. "I _seriously_ don't need this right now, not with Honey!"

A guilty silence covered the room once more. Sam's father finally threw his hands up.

"I cant take this," he said. "I'm sorry Sam, I just cant take this." With that, he turned and left.

"Ron! Ron, you come back here and be with your son!" His mother tore off after him, leaving Sam alone sobbing in his room with an equally upset Honeydew. Mikaela and Bee came into the room quickly to see what all the fuss was about.

"Sam, what happened!?" Mikaela asked, looking at the crying Sam. He shook his head and pulled Honey closer to him.

"Dad freaked," Sam said, wiping his tears from his face. "Mom went after him. Don't…" He choked on his words. "…Don't let them back in…" Bumblebee nodded and stood outside the doorway to insure no more intruders on his charge. Mikaela sat down on the edge of the bed and hugged him.

"I'll be okay, Sam," she said. "It'll be okay…"

**Well. My mom wouldn't be too happy either if I came home with a random baby robot. Next up, Sam runs into Frenzy and Barricade again! (Dun dun duuuuunnnn!!!)**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11-Reacquaint 

Sam tried not to think too much on his parents' leaving, but it was damn hard. His mother called once and awhile, saying that she still loved him and that she would talk to his father. His father never talked to him. When he was well enough to go visit them with Honeydew, his father didn't say a word. In fact, he didn't even stay in the house. Sam was near tears until his mother offered to hold Honeydew for a little while. Sam was actually proud of her bravery, as she could barely stand to ride in Bumblebee.

Honeydew seemed to take kindly to her human grandmother. She'd make happy clicky sounds that Sam's mother found adorable, and she thought the name 'Honeydew' was too cute. When it came time to leave, Sam watched his father pretend to smooth the grass as Bumblebee drove back to the base.

A year passed. Sam was nearing his twentieth birthday, and Honeydew was becoming more active. Sam spent most of his time making sure she didn't crawl into something dangerous—or up the walls, as she recently learned how to do.

Honeydew also began 'talking'. Mikaela was visiting one day, and Honeydew was just chatting away aimlessly at Mojo, who seemed be listening intently. "What is she saying?" she asked, thinking it was Cybertronian. Sam, who was sitting on his couch watching her, shrugged.

"Cant say," he said. "She's just doing what most kids do her age. All I know is, it's a mix between English and Cybertronian. Ratchet said she's probably testing her vocal cords for talking later." Honeydew looked up at her parent and blinked. Then she said something that sounded like "Daddy" and went back to her 'conversation' with the Chihuahua.

"She is so cute!" Mikaela gushed. Sam rolled his eyes.

"Is it, like, a proven fact that no matter how much of a grease monkey a girl is, she'll always have a cuteness weakness?" he said jokingly. Mikaela smacked him in the back of the head.

PB 

It was Sam's birthday, and his mother called, saying she wanted him home for dinner. Sam put Honeydew in a makeshift carrying pack he wore on his back whenever he went out beyond the base. He learned that Honeydew enjoyed enclosed spaces, and usually slept when she was in the pack. He hopped in Bumblebee and they drove off for his parents'.

**"How is she?"** Holo-Bee asked, looking at his friend in shot gun. Sam peeked in his pack to see Honeydew in a light recharge.

"She's going to sleep," Sam said, closing the pack again. Holo-Bee nodded and turned back to the road.

_"…Bared on your tomb, I'm a prayer for your loneliness, and would you ever soon come above onto me…?"_

Sam sighed and leaned back against the seat. For some odd reason he couldn't explain, Cradle of Filth was the only thing that calmed Honeydew down; and ergo, when Honeydew was calm, Sam was calm. _Nymphetamine_ was just what he needed to calm down at the moment.

They finally made it to his parent's house, Sam carefully picked up Honeydew in the pack. "See you, Bee," he said.

**"Just so you know, Sam,"** he Holo-Bee said, **"Optimus asked me to come back to the base while you have dinner. He didn't say what for, but I've got to go anyway. I'll be back around 10:30, though." **

"Okay, later," Sam said, closing the Camaro door. He watched Bumblebee back out and drive away, then turned to the house. As he walked up to the door, he noticed that the driveway was empty. "God," he groaned, sighing. Did his dad really hate him that much, now? He walked up the door and grabbed the knob. It was locked. "The hell…?" He knocked several times, but there was no reaction.

"What is going on?" he demanded out loud. He went over to a window and looked through it. It was dark. He let out a groan and leaned against the side of the house. A stirring in the pack made him sit back up and open it. Glowing gold optics stared back at him, Honeydew making a confused whine. Sam looked around, saw no one, and gently took her out. "I don't know what's going on," he said softly, holding her close. He vaguely heard a car go down the street, and quickly turned away from the road to shield her from view.

PB 

When Bumblebee came back, the first thing he noticed was a car parked in front of the base. He transformed and walked in to find…Sam's parents talking to Optimus, obviously confused. They stopped when they saw Bumblebee. "Where's Sam?" Mrs. Witwicky demanded. Bee looked at Optimus, now very confused.

"We thought you told Sam he could come over for dinner at your home," he said. Sam's parents looked at each other.

"We never called him," Mrs. Witwicky said. "We were going to surprise him by coming here."

Bumblebee looked at the other Autobots. "Oh, no.."

PB 

Sam noticed, with a hint of dread, that the car that was passing stopped dead in front of his house. 'Oh, crap,' was all he could think. Keeping Honeydew safely out of sight, he turned his head to look over his shoulder. Out of the entire vehicle, only one thing stood out—_"To punish and enslave…"_

"_Fuck_!" Sam yelled, running like hell over the neighbor's yards. He heard the police car blip and come after him, red and blue lights flashing in the evening dimness. He held Honeydew tighter than he ever had before as he ran. All he could think about was keeping her safe and out of Decepticon hands. He could feel that Honeydew was very scared, as she was whimpering and clutching his jacket tightly with her skinny fingers.

Sam felt like he hadn't run this fast in his life, even back in Mission City. Probably because this time, he had something more precious to him than the Allspark in his arms. He kept running until he hit some woods near his neighborhood. If he was lucky, he could loose Barricade in the trees; this kind of terrain was not meant for a car like that.

He finally found a large cluster of trees and zig-zagged between them until he heard the police car's noise soften with distance, but he didn't stop there. _Fuck_, he wished he had his cell phone with him…!

Fatigue finally hit him, and he had to stop and lean against a tree to catch his breath. Honeydew whined and nuzzled against his spark-heart, trying to comfort him. He stroked her head with his fingers and tried to get her to calm down in return. "It's okay, Honey," he said through gasps of air. "I think we…!" The sound shifting, transforming metal broke him off. He peeked behind the tree to see a gigantic black robot in the distance, his red eyes two pinpricks of hellfire. Sam forced himself to hold his breath as he turned back around to keep running, only to stop short by a familiar shriek and a form of silver metal falling out of the tree right in front of him, cutting him off.

Every one of Sam's bodily functions ceased working for what seemed like eternity as he stared right at the electric blue optics that stared right back at him. The stare-off broke off when Honeydew let out a small mew and shifted around in Sam's arms. Sam snapped out of it and turned to run the other way—gigantic robot be damned—when said robot was found standing barely ten feet behind him.

He was trapped. Like a fucking rat.

Sam looked from Barricade to the smaller Frenzy back and forth several times, then his back hit another tree as the two ascended, keeping him trapped. He pulled Honeydew tighter around him as Frenzy stepped closer, now barely two feet away from him. The small Decepticon's optics focused on the sparkling with interest, his head cocking twitchily to the side.

"Don't touch her!" Sam said softly, his panic rising. "Don't you _dare_…!" He was cut off when Frenzy ignored him and almost tenderly raised a hand to put a skinny metal fingertip on the sparkling's head. Honeydew looked up, her large golden optics blinking slowly. She slowly turned in Sam's arms so she was facing Frenzy and copied his head movement.

Sam watched, sweating and with bated breath, as Frenzy gently stroked his fingertip from Honeydew's head to down her arm and ending at her tiny palm. Honeydew's hand wrapped around his finger and didn't let go.

A sudden feeling erupted in his spark-heart—a feeling he knew was being transmitted from Honeydew's spark. It was the feeling of wholeness—her spark had found it's other origin—her other parent. And what was even stranger, Sam could feel another spark consciousness from Frenzy through this connection. He could feel Frenzy's awe and curiosity at the little sparkling that shared his genes, in a manner of speaking.

Frenzy looked up at Sam, his optics flashing brighter for a split second. **"The sparkling,"** he said in glitchy Cybertronian. Sam nodded slowly. **"…**_**My**_** sparkling…?"** Sam swallowed hard.

**"My sparkling,"** he said slowly, just two of a few words he knew in Cybertronian. If Frenzy could blink, he would have. Sam looked down at Honeydew, who was looking between both her parents at the gigantic Decepticon, who had yet to do anything but stare. He looked back up at Frenzy and struggled through his get-by Cybertronian. **"Your…sparkling…as well…" **He paused. **"…Honeydew…"**

**Eh, pause it here. More to come next chapter! I've run out of Red Bull TT**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12- Union 

**I'd like to thank my reviewers for the Red Bull. I love you all!**

Frenzy cocked his head to the side when Sam spoke Honeydew's name. He looked back down at the sparkling and gently caressed her head with his fingers. **"My sparking…Honeydew…"** he said softly. Honeydew clicked contently and leaned into his touch. Sam remained completely still as Honeydew's other parent examined her carefully. However, his eyes trailed up to see Barricade still staring down at them, his arms now crossed. Barricade met Sam's stare and blinked his optics.

"Don't look at me," he said gruffly in English. "_He_ was the one who dragged me out here to see the sparkling." Sam swallowed hard.

"He…" he choked out softly, "…he _knew_…?" Frenzy looked back up at Sam and nodded.

**"Yes, I knew," **he said with his usual twitch. **"I heard the medic say it. She is mine."**

"You're not taking her!" Sam said immediately, pulling her closer. Frenzy twitched violently, but Sam ignored it. "She's mine!" The small Decepticon looked quite put out. His fingers twitched dejectedly, and he made a low whirring sound Sam took as a growl.

"Hey, kid," Barricade said, getting Sam's attention. "I don't think you get the whole picture." He bent down on one knee to get closer to Sam. "You don't really _get_ how big this is, do you?" He didn't wait for Sam to answer. "Kid, this is so big, Starscream himself doesn't know about it, and he was the one who ordered the sodomy in the first place."

Sam's face darkened at the mention of the incident. "What's your point?" he snapped. "Give me one reason why I should even be standing here instead of tearing ass out of here!"

Barricade let his head hang and said something in Cybertronian that sounded like **"Primus help me..."** "Kid, work with me here," he grumbled, putting a finger to his temple. "You hold in your arms a sparkling. The Allspark was destroyed beforehand. Do the slagging math!" He knelt down lower so there was about three feet of space between their faces. "Listen to me, kid. That sparkling is a part of Frenzy. Ever since the sparkling was born, Frenzy's been disobeying Starscream and causing a pit of damage every time your name is mentioned." He paused.

"By that sparkling," he continued, "you are connected with Frenzy in a unique—but not unheard of—spark bond. I'm sure you've felt his emotions and even thoughts in the spark in your own heart." Sam nodded. "Then you should be able to meet me halfway with what I'm saying." He paused again to look at his partner. "Through this connection, you and Frenzy are bonded spark mates."

Sam blinked. "...Come again...?" he asked. Barricade muttered something else in Cybertronian Sam didn't quite catch.

"You could call it the human equivalent of..." He searched for a decent word. "...marriage."

"Sonofabitch..." Sam hissed, dropping weakly to the ground and leaning against the tree. "...You're telling me I'm..._married_...to..._him_...!?" He jerked his head in Frenzy's direction. Barricade nodded.

"Bingo," he said awkwardly. Sam swallowed hard and thunked his head back against the tree.

"...Oh, God..." he gasped. Honeydew whined and curled up in his arms. He sighed and closed his eyes. "...What exactly does that mean for me?" he asked. Barricade looked at his partner again.

"It means that Frenzy no longer serves Starscream," he said evenly. "He now lives to protect you and the sparkling."

Sam's head shot up, his eyes wide. "He...what...?" he demanded. Frenzy let out a meaningless twitchy click and put one hand on Honeydew's head and looked at Sam, eye-to-optic.

"I l-live t-t-to p-p-protect you, S-Sam Witwicky," he said in stuttering, glitchy English. Sam stared wide-eyed at him. "...And-d m-my s-s-sss-sparkling..." Sam blinked.

"God..._damn_..." he muttered. He shifted his eyes back up to Barricade. "...And _you're_ here...why...?" he questioned. Barricade sat back on his heels.

"It's...complicated," he said. "Frenzy and I have a different kind of spark bond...it's probably why we've been partners for millennia and I have yet to turn him into a hood ornament." Frenzy stared up at him and gave him a middle-finger salute. "Cute, Frenzy," he snapped. "Anyway, the closest translation I can find for us is...'life partners'..."

"We have something like that, too," Sam said automatically. "It's called 'homosexual'." Barricade either didn't know what he was talking about or chose to ignore it.

"Either way," he said, "Frenzy's spark bond to you and your sparkling has forced him via instinct to protect you. It's pretty much non-negotiable. And since we're life partners,"—he ignored Sam's snort of ill-repressed laughter—"I have an obligation to go the path he goes, metaphorically speaking."

Sam was quiet for a moment to let it all sink in. Several points pounded themselves into his head: 1) He was now 'married'—Sam gagged at the thought—to Frenzy, 2) Frenzy and Barricade were actually being forced to protect him, and 3)...Honeydew was reaching out for Frenzy...

Indeed, she was. Honeydew reached her thin arms out to her other parent, making small clicky noises. Sam bit his lip, wondering what to do, then Barricade shuddered and transformed back into a cop car.

**"I'll be right back," **he said, then drove away. Sam was now alone with Frenzy, who was gently playing with her splayed fingers. Frenzy looked up at Sam and cocked his head to the side.

"P-p-please..." he said, struggling through the word. Sam paused for a moment, his head screaming doubts, but his spark-heart feeling Frenzy's plea for close contact with his sparkling. Hesitantly, Sam gently handed Honeydew into Frenzy's thin arms. Frenzy emitted a happy series of clicks and held her close—two extra forearms coming out of the crooks of his arms for extra protection.

"Honeyd-d-dew..." Frenzy stuttered, one finger tracing her face. Sam leaned against the tree again.

"You can talk in Cybertronian if it's easier for you," he said. "I can understand it." Frenzy twitched his head to the side.

**"Alright," **he said. **"I like...Honeydew...as a name."** Sam gave him a weak smile, all the running and life-bond-mate crap finally hitting him.

"...So do I..." he said. He watched Frenzy examine Honeydew for a little while, relaxing a little, but still keeping a close eye on them. He looked up when he heard a car come through the woods again. It came to a halt in front of them, but it wasn't a police car. It was instead a black and silver Mustang—brand new, by the looks of it.

**"Had to change my disguise,"** Barricade said. **"I doubt the Autobots would approve of a Transformer with "Search and destroy..." on his shoulder."**

"Right..." Sam said. The Mustang's door opened.

**"Let's go,"** he said. **"I'm sure the Autobots are looking for you since your parents are obviously not home." **Sam climbed in the passenger seat and saw Holo-Barricade sitting in the driver's seat, a little different from the Holo-cop he first saw. This hologram had black hair and looked like a 30-year-old club bouncer, which Sam didn't find too surprising.

Frenzy carefully clambered in the backseat, activating his own over-body hologram that looked like an 18-year-old skinny boy with bleached white hair. Again, Sam wasn't too surprised.

The seatbelt fastened itself over Sam, and Frenzy carefully handed Honeydew back to Sam, who put her in the pack, but left it unstrapped. "Thanks," Sam said, but not really knowing what for. Holo-Barricade shrugged and the Mustang drove carefully out of the woods. Just before they got out, Sam sat up straight. "How did you guys know about my...?"

**"Frenzy's pretty good at voice recording and imitation," **Barricade said without missing a beat. **"We needed to tell you this **_**somehow**_**. They're unharmed, don't worry,"** he added, seeing Sam's face. Sam relaxed a little and hugged the pack containing precious cargo.

"Right," he said slowly, getting more tired by the moment. He knew he couldn't get too comfortable—he had _a lot_ to explain to the Autobots before a 'giant toy death match', as Mikaela called it, broke out.

**Ah, the wonders that never cease...(yawns)...I needs me some double-shots...**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13- Explanations 

When Sam felt Barricade pull up to the base, he noticed that everything was too quiet. No one was there. He stepped out of Barricade and backed up to let him transform and hugged the pack containing Honeydew inside close to him. "Where is everyone?" he wondered. He walked inside, signaling Barricade and still-hologrammed Frenzy to follow. Indeed, the base was empty, and it looked like they had left in a hurry. "Oh crap," he said, slumping down on something. "They must've gone looking for me."

Barricade looked around, looking thoroughly unimpressed. However, he sat himself down on one of Optimus's seats and made himself comfortable. "Can you contact any of them?" he asked. Sam mentally slapped himself.

"Yeah," he said. He went into his room, gently laid Honeydew on his bed, and picked up his comm. phone specifically for contacting the Autobots. He pressed Bumblebee's frequency button and waited.

"SAM!?"

Sam held the phone away from his head a few inches and winced. Honeydew sat up and blinked. "Bee?" she chirped lightly. Sam made a shushing motion with his hand.

"Yeah, Bee," he said, switching ears. He heard Bumblebee tell something to the other Autobots.

"Where are you?" Optimus's voice demanded. Sam fidgeted nervously.

"I'm back at the base," he said slowly. "I…I got a ride here from…" He turned his head to see Barricade poking at something of Ratchet's. He caught Barricade's optics and made a violent sweep of his hand while mouthing 'Put it down!'. Barricade did and backed out of Ratchet's hanger. "…from a friend…"

"You came with someone to the base!?" Ironhide put in. "Are you fried in the mainframe, kid!?" There was a short scuffle accompanied with 'Shut _up_, 'Hide!'

"The thing is, are you alright, Sam?" Bumblebee asked. Sam sighed and sat down on his bed.

"Yes, I am, Bee," he said, running a hand through his hair. "But…I've really gotta tell you all something…" He looked at Honeydew, who crawled into his lap. He put a hand on her back. "…It's really important…"

There was a small silence. "Alright, Sam," Bee said. "We'll see you when we get there…_No_, Ironhide, we _wont_ flay him…Primus…Stay there, alright, Sam?"

"Alright," Sam said. "…And, take my parents home. I'd rather not have them around for this…"

"See you in a few minutes." With that, Bumblebee cut the link and Sam tossed the phone on the beside table. He picked Honeydew up and carried her into the main base where Barricade had returned from poking at Ratchet's things.

"If there's one rule in this base, Barricade," Sam said, walking up to him, "it's that you _never_ touch Ratchet's things unless you want to wake up from a recharge with your arms where your legs should be and a pink paint job." Barricade blinked his optics.

"…And you know this, how…?"

"I've seen pictures," Sam said, shuddering. "Anyway, being in the main base probably isn't the best place to be at the moment…" He looked around. "Hey, where's…?"

A crash from Ratchet's hanger made Sam wince. "_Fuck…_" he hissed. **"Get out of there!"** he screamed in Cybertronian, a phrase he'd heard Ratchet use more than often. Frenzy minus the hologram came skidding out and to a halt in front of Barricade. Sam rubbed his temple with his fingers. "Alright, here's the deal, guys. Optimus and the others will be here in a few minutes. As far as I can tell, they're pretty pissed at you guys for putting me in this position, and for the fact that you're Decepticons. So…" He shifted Honeydew in both arms. She was getting sleepy and click-yawning. "I suggest you guys hiding out in my room until I explain a few things, alright?"

Barricade nodded and picked Frenzy up to avoid more broken things. "How long do we have to—?"

"Until I call you out," Sam broke off. "Now hurry and get in my room. Don't touch anything," he added to Frenzy. Barricade turned and carefully walked into Sam's room, keeping Frenzy tight in his hand. Sam sat down on something and waited for the Autobots to arrive.

He didn't have to wait long. Barely ten minutes later, the sounds of a Camaro, Hummer, topkick, and semi resounded outside. He heard them transform and Bee was the first to come running in.

"Sam! Are you okay? What happened!? Who—!?"

"Okay, calm down, Bee!" Sam said, gesturing with his hand. "Yes, I'm okay, what happened, I'll tell you when everyone's here, and as for who…err…" He peeked behind him. "…I'll get to that in a minute."

The other Autobots came in, Optimus in the lead. Ratchet was in front of Ironhide who was muttering, "I'm gonna kill that kid, so help me Primus…" and the such. Sam took a few deep breaths to compose himself.

"I need to talk to you guys," he said, firming his hold on Honeydew, who had finally gone into recharge. He waited for everyone to find a seat before taking another breath and clearing his throat. "Ah, well…where to start…?"

"Start with where you went after you found your parents weren't home," Optimus offered, crossing his arms. Sam nodded.

"…Well, I went into the woods near my house," he said. The Autobots blinked.

"…Why?" Bumblebee asked. Sam took another deep breath.

"I was running." He paused. "From Barricade."

"_What_!?" Ironhide roared, making Sam wince and give him a 'look'. Ironhide realized the sparkling was sleeping and sat back down.

"Barricade came by my house, so I panicked and ran," Sam continued. "I ran into the woods to lose him."

"…So, how did you get back here in that short amount of time?" Ratchet asked. Sam cleared his throat again.

"…I…got a ride back," he said, beginning to sweat a little. "But before anything else, does anyone want to explain 'spark bonds' with me?"

There was an awkward silence. Ratchet shifted uncomfortably in his seat, indicating he knew something Sam didn't—or so he thought. "Sam…" he began slowly. "…It's…a very complicated subject…"

"Do I have one?" Sam asked, a little demanding. Ratchet—and everyone else—was silent. Right. "Is there anything you want to tell me before I continue?"

"Sam, there's a lot about this…bond…that you don't understand…!"

"Ratchet, please," he said, holding up a hand. "When I ran into the woods, Barricade followed me," he continued. "…And Frenzy was with him."

"Sam—!"

"When were you going to find it a good time to tell me about the spark bond Frenzy and I have through Honeydew!?" Sam was on his feet now. Bumblebee looked from Ratchet to Sam, wondering who he should side with in the event of things getting ugly. Ratchet looked guiltily at Optimus, who looked just as guilty. Ironhide looked a little confused. Sam calmed down and sat again. "Ratchet, Barricade basically told me everything. Him, and Frenzy."

Bumblebee tensed at the mention of Barricade. "You actually stayed to listen to him?" he said with a bit of a hiss. Sam rounded on him.

"Yes," he said. "I did. He wasn't hostile towards me, and neither was Frenzy."

"How do you know he wasn't just trying to get you to Starscream?" Bee demanded.

"Because," came a voice across the hanger. Barricade stood there with Frenzy on his shoulder. "If we were going to take him to Starscream, we would've already."

**I'd like to stop here…I'm getting a headache, and The Original Kings of Comedy is on. Bernie Mac rules. **


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14- Truce 

Sam pounded his head on the metaphorical mental desk. 'That son of a…!' he thought. He didn't finish that thought before Bumblebee, Ironhide, and Ratchet shot up, battle armor sliding in place on their faces and weapons out in a split second. Frenzy reared up like a cat, several sharp points shooting out from his back and arms. A longblade shot out of Barricade's forearm and he took a defensive stance.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Sam hollered, shooting up and accidentally waking up Honeydew. "Everyone…!" Bumblebee shot at Barricade, who dodged it and ran at his attacker. Sam stood up on something. **"SHUT UP!!!"**

All the Autobots and Barricade stopped short, turning to Sam, who was red in the face and holding Honeydew in one arm and had the other hand clenched at his side. Barricade was the first to retract his blade and hold his hands up in a manner of surrender. Frenzy jumped down from Barricade's shoulder and ran up to Sam, standing in front of him still in that pissed-off cat stance.

"Sit down, Frenzy," Sam said, putting his free hand to his temple. The small 'bot gave everyone else a last look-around before retracting his sharp protrusions and sitting back next to Sam. "Okay, Bee, Ratchet, Ironhide—armor off and weapons away!" He turned to Barricade. "Barricade…over here, I want some space to avoid getting heads blown of…" Barricade trudged over to the opposite side of the room and sat down, his arms crossed. "You guys…sit down too!" The others obeyed, though Bumblebee kept his optics on Barricade and Frenzy.

"Sam, what the _hell_ are they doing here!?" Ironhide demanded, pointing accusingly at Barricade. Sam sat back down and stroked Honeydew's head, trying to get her to stop whimpering.

"Okay, do you want the whole story, or the condensed, to-the-point version?" he asked Optimus, who had stayed rather quiet. Optimus looked at Barricade, who stared back for a moment, then looked away.

"…The whole story, if you please," he said, looking back at Sam.

"Well," Sam began after a deep breath. "It really all began with that phone call from home…"

**PB**

By the end of the story, with some add-ins from Barricade on his and Frenzy's side, the room was full of tension, and Sam was not comfortable. Neither was Honeydew, who was crying for the attention of both parents, now that they were in immediate proximity of each other.

Bumblebee seemed incapable of doing anything by blinking his optics at the moment, and Ratchet looked down at his armor, as he knew most of what Sam told them. Ironhide was still looking like he wanted to shove his cannons up some Decepticon aft and fire. Optimus looked at them all for a moment before sighing heavily and walking up to Barricade, who stood up slightly on the defensive. The other Autobots did the same, but Optimus made them back off by raising his hand.

"Barricade," he said solemnly, "if what you say is true, then that means you are no longer a Decepticon, am I correct?" Barricade stared at him for a moment.

"Not by choice," he said firmly. He looked at Frenzy, who was cautiously playing with Honeydew's outstretched fingers. "By the life partner bond with Frenzy, I am obligated to follow what he chooses to do, which is stay and protect his spark bond mate and sparkling." He looked back at Optimus. "By Frenzy's request, I have not told Starscream about the sparkling."

"This is ridiculous!" Ironhide spat, shooting to a standing position. He pointed accusingly at Barricade. "Optimus, that son of a glitch is the _reason_ why Sam is in this predicament!" Barricade shouldered Optimus aside and stepped up to face Ironhide.

"This 'son of a glitch'," he stressed, "is the reason why you even _found_ the kid in the first place! I didn't _have_ to leave a tracking signal, you know! Starscream even found it more necessary he be left to die out there! I did you stupid Autobots a fucking _favor_!"

"Barricade, please…" Sam said, covering Honeydew's audio receptors. She blinked innocently and chirped lightly. Barricade growled and sat heavily back down and crossed his arms.

"Enough, you two," Optimus said firmly. He turned back to Barricade. "If you are going to remain here, I have to insist on you being watched around the clock, and I have to insist you be instated as an Autobot."

Barricade's teeth bared more than usual at the thought, but he jerked his head away from Optimus's sight and muttered "Fine," under his breath. "And Frenzy?" he added.

"Him too. If anything, we want to install a communication interceptor in him to insure extra precaution." He paused when Barricade shook his head.

"It wont do you any good," he said. "Frenzy is the top technical expert in the Decepticon force. He'll just disengage it."

"At least he's honest about it…" Ratchet muttered to Bumblebee, who let out a disgruntled click and crossed his arms.

"Besides, you know that the spark bond wont allow him to do anything that would endanger his mate or sparkling. He gave himself up as an Autobot the moment he became the parent of that sparkling."

Optimus was silent for a few more moments. "We'll see how things go for the next few days," he finally concluded slowly. "Until then, I expect you to take the utmost care of Sam and Honeydew. Am I understood?"

Barricade grunted, but nodded. Frenzy twitchily nodded as well and turned his attention back to his sparkling, who yawned and curled up in Sam's arms.

"It's time for recharge," Optimus said to everyone. Sam happily stood up and carried Honeydew into his room. Frenzy followed, but was picked up by Ratchet as he passed him.

"I don't think so, you little glitch," he said. "You're staying were I can keep an eye on you." He shifted his optics to Barricade. "You too. I don't trust a one of you, no matter what Sam says. I refuse to have him hurt again." He turned back to the madly clicking Frenzy. "You're staying with me," he said. "I'll have Optimus find somewhere for you."

"I don't think that's wise," Barricade said. "Frenzy and I have always been in contact during recharge. Separate us, and you'll find several vital parts missing when you come back online."

To emphasize his point, Frenzy jerked free of Ratchet's grasp, shot like a spider over his armor, and jumped onto Barricade and crawled into his chest out of sight. Barricade gave him a 'told-you-so' look and sat down against a wall. "I'll just stay here," he said. "Cant do any harm here, can I? Not with the leader on one side and the medic on the other…" He let his optics go offline without waiting for a response.

Ratchet grumbled something in Cybertronian under his breath and went into his hanger to go recharge himself. _"WHO THE HELL BROKE MY SAW!?"_

**PB**

Sometime during the night, Frenzy woke up from a very uncomfortable and unsuccessful recharge. He soundlessly crawled out of Barricade, past Ratchet, and into Sam's room, where the 20-year-old was sleeping in his bed with Honeydew curled up next to him. Frenzy shifted up into the bed and made himself comfortable on the other side of the sparkling before finally shifting into the best recharge he'd had in almost two years, only to be awakened by a squeal of joy from Honeydew, and a thunk of his mate falling out of bed from shock.

…**Okay…next up—Coping with living with Barricade and Frenzy. Plus, a jealous Bumblebee! Dun dun duuuun!!! **


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15- Coping 

A week later, no one was one step closer to coping with the changes in the Autobot base. Ratchet had to be restrained from taking Frenzy apart screw by bolt; the little 'bot just couldn't keep himself out of the lab or anything in it. Frenzy would just run and hide himself in Barricade's chest, then Barricade would have to dodge Ratchet's lazar scalpel.

Ironhide wasn't faring any better. He and Barricade went at it like rabid wolves nearly every hour he happened to come over to make sure Barricade wouldn't kill anyone. That led to Optimus's dilemma—keeping the _fucking _peace. He felt like he was going to burst a few circuits at any given moment.

He had sworn in Barricade the day after he arrived, and all hell broke loose from there. More than once, Sam caught the Autobot leader banging his head on the wall or anything else convenient every time he was about to break up a fight or pry a scalpel from Ratchet's hands.

…And then there was Bumblebee.

Sam had many times requested Bee get him out of the base to anywhere but, and Bumblebee happily obliged. Not that he would come out and say it, but he was a little peeved at Sam's spark bond with Frenzy—and indirectly, Barricade. He was too happy to have some alone time with his best friend and Honeydew.

Today, leaving Optimus to forcefully separate Barricade and Ratchet, Sam clambered in the Camaro and silently begged him to go. Now. Bumblebee revved his engine and took off at a safe pace for them.

"For the love of all things metal and sacred!" Sam exasperated, resting his head against the window. Honeydew clicked and cuddled up to him. "_Why_ did I find it a good idea to bring them to the base?"

_"Let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the floor…"_

"Funny, Bee!" Sam said, flicking the dashboard. The radio turned off.

**"I'm just saying, Sam,"** Bumblebee said offhandedly. **"Before the month is over, we're going to have at least one 'bot's worth of spare parts."**

"Ever the optimist, aren't we?" Sam asked sarcastically. The engine revved in response. "Right…" He sighed. "I just wish they would all get along. I mean, you don't have _that _much out of common, right?"

No response.

"…Bee?"

**"I'm sorry Sam," **Bumblebee finally said. **"But Barricade and I do not have the best history, and then there's the fact that they're Decepticons."**

"Bee…"

**"**_**Ex**_**-Decepticons, then. My point remains valid."**

Sam sighed and leaned back in the seat, absently stroking Honeydew's back. "Either way, Frenzy's my…ugh, mate…and Barricade's my guardian, so-."

The Camaro screeched to a halt, jerking Sam forward. Sam's arms tightened around Honeydew instinctively. "_Bumblebee_!" He unbuckled his seatbelt. "What the hell—!?" The door opened, and Sam climbed out just as Bumblebee transformed. "What is your problem, Bee?!"

"I'll tell you what my problem is, _Sam_!" Bumblebee shot back, standing at his full height and glaring down at Sam. "That piece of scrap metal is _not_ your guardian! _I _am! And I don't really see why you feel the need to defend him like he's been around this whole time!"

Sam gaped up at him. "Is _that_ what this is about!?" he demanded, his eyes narrowing. "_God_, Bee! I didn't mean you _weren't_ my guardian! I just meant that Barricade was the guardian of me, Honey, and Frenzy as a whole! How the _hell_ could you think he could replace you!?" Without waiting for a response, Sam turned on heel and began to trek back to the base. He didn't turn around when he heard Bumblebee transform back into a Camaro and begin to follow him. He stared straight ahead, livid, when Bee drove alongside him at his pace. "Just leave me alone, Bumblebee," he said softly, turning away.

Bumblebee felt completely terrible. And stupid. It hurt his spark to know he just hurt his charge's feelings by insulting his loyalty. He knew that Sam really needed to be alone, so he decided to back off, but stay just out of sight, just in case. He slowed down and took a small turn off in the other direction.

Sam listened to Bumblebee leave, then finally burst into tears. He held Honeydew close to his spark-heart and tried to stop because he didn't want her to get upset, either. He was just under so much pressure, and all the hell and racket in the base wasn't helping a bit.

Honeydew whimpered and rubbed her head against Sam's chest. Sam gently patted her back and leaned against a tree, then closed his eyes. He let himself calm down with a few breaths. Okay, time to go back…

He opened his eyes in time to see a black and silver Mustang pull up with Frenzy standing up in the front seat. "What do you want?" Sam asked as nicely as he could.

**"To get away from that insane medic,"** Barricade growled, coming to a stop in front of Sam. **"I didn't even**_** do**_** anything this time—neither did Frenzy. I swear the idiot topkick is framing us now…"**

Sam rolled his eyes. "You sure you're not just trying to save your own asses?" he asked. He heard Barricade make a noise of contempt.

**"Trust me, pissing off the medic is the last thing on my priority list. Do you think I go out of my way to get stabbed with a dissection tool?"**

"I guess not," Sam muttered. He looked up when the passenger door popped open.

**"You hungry, kid?" **Barricade asked, activating his hologram. **"Frenzy senses you need sustenance."**

Sam _was_ hungry. He didn't have time to get breakfast before Ratchet started screaming at the former Decepticons. "Yeah, sure," he said, climbing in and buckling his seatbelt. "Where to?"

**"Wherever you want," **Frenzy said in Cybertronian, also activating his hologram. Sam thought for a moment.

"It's still early," he said. "The BK breakfast menu might still be open."

**"Right," **Holo-Barricade said, turning and heading for the town.

After they were out of sight, Bumblebee came out from behind the trees and stared after the Mustang carrying his charge. He narrowed his optics and went straight back to the base, rather thoroughly pissed off.

**Poor little Bumblebee…I'm making myself sad…Anyhoo, up next—new recruits on both sides begin to show up, and Starscream gets suspicious! **


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16- Arrivals 

After a month, things cooled down in the Autobot base somewhat. Frenzy—by way of Barricade—kept out of Ratchet's things, and whenever Ironhide came over, Barricade himself went out driving, or merely ignored him, which actually seemed to work. Ironhide eventually gave up trying to instigate—and Ratchet's things stopped disappearing. Ratchet, after seeing Barricade fix Frenzy up after a nasty hurl from Ironhide when he scratched his cannons, recognized Barricade's latent medic talent.

Sam grew more comfortable with Frenzy hanging around him all time. Frenzy's English had gotten fractionally better, but he still had a bad stutter, and took to abbreviating certain words, like he called Barricade 'Cade', and sometimes doubled the 'Cade' when he spoke fast. Sam was highly amused to find that 'Witwicky' was ironically one of the easiest things for Frenzy to pronounce. He had also gotten used to waking up and seeing Frenzy facing him on the other side of Honeydew nearly every morning, especially when Barricade told him Frenzy hadn't had a decent recharge in almost two years from being separated from his spark mate and sparkling.

And then there was Bumblebee. Sam noticed that his guardian had been distant and quiet ever since they had that fight, and it bothered him. He tried to initiate conversation, but Bumblebee would either give him short, blunt answers, or just ignore him altogether. Frenzy noticed the spark-ache in his mate, and grew to dislike the yellow Camaro for making Sam feel bad.

Optimus was grateful for the tension-breaker when he heard an alarm go off. He ran to the radar and immediately called everyone in as soon as he saw it.

"What's going on?" Sam asked, Frenzy and Honeydew on his heels. Barricade and Ratchet came out of the lab. Bumblebee slunked out of a corner.

"We have a signal coming in from outside the atmosphere," Optimus said. Ratchet tuned his frequency to catch some signals.

_**"Co…in…Autobo…."**_

"It's a little garbled," Ratchet said, trying to find a better frequency. He reached a small ways into his temple and matched his frequency to the one coming in. **"Autobot Ratchet in. State your name."**

_**"…Si…ipe…"**_

**"Please repeat."** There was more static, then a clear reception.

_**"…Sideswipe…"**_

"Oh…sweet Primus, no…"

"Who's…?" Sam began, but Ratchet hushed him with a hand.

**"Sideswipe? This is Ratchet. Is Sunstreaker with you?"**

_**"Primus's most beautiful creation, in."**_

"Oh, Lord…" Barricade said, putting a hand to his face. Sam looked at him, an eyebrow raised.

"Someone you know?" he asked. Barricade shook his head.

"Someone I'd rather _not_ know…" Ratchet shushed them all again.

**"Send the coordinates of where you're landing," **Ratchet said. There was silence, then something appeared on the screen in front of him. "Oh, slag!"

Sam looked at him, a little confused, then paused. "…Does anyone else hear something…?"

CRASH 

Silence.

"….They landed in Tranquility, didn't they?"

"Yes."

"Outskirts, or inside?"

"Next to the car show."

"Damn."

More silence.

"Well," Ratchet said, turning away from the screen. "Let's go meet the spawn of Unicron, shall we?"

"Try to be nice, Ratchet," Optimus said as they walked toward the door. "We haven't seen them in ages."

"Ages isn't enough to rid me of the memory of those two…"

Optimus sighed and transformed. **"Be nice, Ratchet,"** he repeated. The other Autobots transformed after him. Sam walked up to Bumblebee, but the Camaro rolled away before Sam could get to him. Barricade watched Bumblebee ignore his charge, and revved his engine irritably. He rolled up to Sam and opened the passenger door.

"Thanks," he said with sadness in his voice. Holo-Ratchet nodded.

**"No problem,"** he said, his holo-eyes glaring at the Camaro. He drove after the others while Frenzy activated his own holo-form.

"…What was your problem with those new Autobots?" Sam questioned. He actually saw Holo-Barricade's eye twitch.

**"…We had a bad meeting a few millennia ago,"** he said crossly. His eyes shifted to Frenzy in the back seat, who was playing with the strapped-in Honeydew. **"The one that called himself 'Primus's most beautiful creation', Sunstreaker, is the most narcissistic 'bot ever created, next to Starscream. You so much as **_**touch**_** his paintjob, and he'll be all over you like a virus." **He turned left to follow the others. **"That little glitch in the back seat had to go and **_**scratch**_** the paintjob on that idiot, and he chased us around with a plasma blaster for hours until he shot one of my legs off and threw Frenzy into a crater two miles away."**

"Ouch," Sam said, wincing. "You think he'll hold it against you now?"

**"…I really hope not. If there's any Autobot I fear besides Ratchet, it's that vain mirror-kisser."**

"And who's that other Autobot?"

**"His twin brother, Sideswipe. He's not as bad, per se, but he also has a temper on him. Bigger guns, too. Sunstreaker actually stole the blaster from him to shoot at us. We don't get along, either."**

"Wow." Sam sat back in the seat. "Harsh. Wonder if they'll be surprised when they see you're on their side."

**"As I said before—not really by choice,"** Barricade said. **"There's the show." **Sam looked out the window and saw two smoldering craters in the ground next to the empty car show, which wasn't scheduled to open until tomorrow. Sam hopped out of the Mustang and edged toward them enough to see that they were empty.

"…Where'd they go?" Frenzy hopped out of the back seat with Honeydew, who had a hologram installment of her own now with white-blonde hair and the same golden eyes. Optimus transformed and looked around.

"They should be here…" he said, confused. A sound made him turn around and then jump out of the way when two Lamborghinis, one red and one yellow, sped right in front of him and skidded to a halt, sending a small amount of dirt and gravel in Ratchet's direction.

Ratchet transformed in an instant. "_You little sons of glitches_!" he roared, stomping toward them, battle-saw out. "I should take you two apart right here, right _now_!"

**"Aww, you missed us, Ratch'!"** came a sappy voice from the yellow Lamborghini. It transformed into a classy-looking 'bot, who turned to his brother. "Did'ja hear that, Sides? He missed us!"

The red Lamborghini also transformed into a not-quite identical form, but still had the same…air, Sam concluded, as his brother. "I seriously doubt that, Sunstreaker," he said, looking warily at Ratchet's saw. He looked around at everyone else, his optics landing on Sam. "Who's the fleshling?" he asked off-handedly.

"Sam Witwicky," Sam said, a little peeved at his bluntness. "Nice to meet you." He backed up slightly when the yellow one bent down a little too close for comfort.

"Tiny little things this planet has, Sides," he said. Sam scowled at him.

"Maybe _you're_ just big, jackass!" he shot back. Sunstreaker blinked his optics and stood back up all the way.

"Rude, too," he said. "Just trying to make conversation, Wikikky…"

"_Witwicky_!" Sam hollered. Sideswipe snickered.

"Owned!" he said, trying to control his laughter. Sunstreaker shot his brother a 'look', then looked at Optimus.

"Nice to see ya again, Optimus," he said. He smiled at Bumblebee. "Our little bro…! Aww, he grew up good, Sides! Look at 'im!"

"He _did_ get bigger," Sideswipe said, looking Bumblebee up and down. "Not the little Bee we used to know, eh, Sunny?"

"Nope," Sunstreaker said. "And don't call me Sunny!"

**"You two are just as annoying as ever,"** Barricade said, transforming into robot mode. The twins stared for a moment, then went on the defensive.

"Oh slag, it's Barricade!" Sideswipe yelled, pulling out some cannons. Sunstreaker went for his weapon, too.

"Oh, stop it!" Sam said, feeling a migraine coming on. "Long story short—Barricade, Frenzy, with us. Story over. Now let's _go_! I hear police sirens!"

"Music to my ears," Barricade muttered, then transformed. Sam hopped in, and Frenzy followed with Honeydew. The twins looked at Optimus who nodded and transformed, signaling the others to follow suit. The Lambo twins were the last to transform and follow.

"Ritzy," Sam commented on their forms. He heard Barricade mumble.

"Show-offs."

PB 

The arrival of the twins masked the arrival of others, but not Autobot or even friendly of origin. These pods crashed somewhere in uninhabited Mexico, where a large silver Decepticon was waiting. He waited until they were out and fully conscious before addressing them.

**"Demolisher. Soundwave…"** He looked at two in particular. **"…my Seeker brothers…"** The four Decepticons nodded in acknowledgement. Starscream gave them a cruel smile.

**"Welcome to Earth."**

**Kinda random selection, but I put my favorites in there. Armada Demolisher doesn't get enough love, and Soundwave is cool. Cassettes ruuuule!!! And the Seeker brothers are always a laugh. Especially when drunk…End there, and more tomorrow…(yawn)…sleepy….**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17- Confrontation 

Sam thought he knew hell. He was wrong. Migraines were a constant visitor since the twins arrived, and so was Ratchet's swearing and dents in the wall from Optimus smacking his head against it. Barricade was trying damn hard to keep his Decepticon tendencies in check, but it was failing. Badly. Frenzy was two broken items away from being kept on a leash from the urge to scratch Sunstreaker's precious paintjob—but then again, even Ratchet had that urge every once and awhile.

Sideswipe was all right, but the worst asset of Sunstreaker's, Sam found, was his rude bluntness. The first thing out of his mouth when he found out how Honeydew came into being?

"Wow. Bet that had to hurt."

When those words left him, everyone in the base went dead silent. Ratchet actually dropped the tool he had been using to fix Bee with after a rough romp-around with the twins. Bumblebee himself stared with hot fire at the yellow Lamborghini. Barricade flexed his blade-like fingers threateningly, his teeth baring more, and Frenzy went on the catlike defensive from playing with Honeydew.

"Sunstreaker!" Optimus barked angrily. "Apologize right _now_!"

"What?" Sunstreaker asked innocently, apparently unaware he'd said anything wrong. "What'd I say?"

Sam felt like something had shot his spark-heart out with one of Ironhide's cannons. He'd just almost gotten over the whole incident ever since the natural pleasantness of the spark bond he Honeydew and Frenzy shared, but that comment just made him jerk back to the subject of pain. He swallowed hard and tried not to be affected by the comment.

Bumblebee saw Sam's face and shot up to Sunstreaker. He shoved the Lamborghini up against the wall with one hand and activated his arm cannon with the other. "Apologize to him NOW!" he yelled, revving the gun up. Optimus quickly intervened, pulling Bumblebee away from Sunstreaker.

"Bumblebee, calm down!" he said firmly. "Sunstreaker, stop being a glitch and apologize!"

Sunstreaker momentarily ignored that he might have been dinted by the wall and turned to the human to say he was sorry, but Sam was already running out of the base with, Ratchet noted, a severely accelerated heart rate. He stalked up to Sunstreaker, mad. "We _never_ mention that in his presence!" he shouted. "And here I thought you couldn't get any more stupid!" He turned to Frenzy. "Make sure he doesn't do anything drastic!" Frenzy nodded and sped off after his mate, stopping only to pick up a rock and chuck it heavily at Sunstreaker's head.

PB 

Sam kept running for what felt like hours before finally stopping and leaning against a tree. He heaved a sigh and forced the tears away from his eyes. He pondered how in the hell the Autobots were able to keep sane around Sunstreaker. He was more Decepticon than his own good. His brother wasn't all that bad; Sideswipe generally stayed out of conflicts and even restrained Sunstreaker from doing something stupid on occasion. But his point remained valid.

"Fuck…" he muttered, drying his eyes. He didn't really mean to barge out like that. He decided to go back and plot revenge that included Ratchet's pink paintjob idea, and get Frenzy and Barricade to be in on it. He turned to go back the way he came, when something jumped out of a tree with a catlike screech and landed in front of him.

"Shit-fuck!" Sam screamed, falling back. It was another mech, by the look of it—the size and shape of a panther. The robotic feline bared its fangs and yowled at him. Sam didn't need to be pushed any further to run like hell. He shot off like Ironhide was shooting at him, not bothering to look back. He just _knew_ it had to be working for Starscream! He seriously doubted it was an experiment Ratchet neglected to mention. Oh well—think later, run NOW—!

WHACK

Sam ran smack into something hard and metal and fell flat on his back, feeling like he had cracked some ribs. He probably did. He breathed in a painful breath and looked at the blockade in his way. It was an indigo-colored Transformer; a little on the small side like Jazz was, and it had both a visor and faceplate over its mouth. But through the visor, Sam knew it was staring at him; what was worse, he felt like it was staring _into_ him…

"You are Sam Witwicky."

Sam jerked when it spoke to him. The voice was a little on the higher side like Bumblebee's but it had zero tone or emotion behind it—completely monotonous. Sam swallowed hard and nodded slowly. He shot around when he heard the panther-like robot leap from the bushes and right next to him, growling threateningly at him. Sam inched slightly away.

"What do you want?" he asked the Transformer in front of him, though not taking his eyes off the panther.

"I am here to take you to Lord Starscream," it said, reaching down for him. Sam's eyes widened and before he could even debate running away, a silver Frenzy shot from nowhere and in front of Sam, shielding him from the intruder. There was a stare-off, then Frenzy lowered his guard slightly.

**"Soundwave…"** The taller 'bot cocked his head to the side and slowly knelt down to Frenzy.

**"Frenzy,"** he said, though still monotonous held a small touch of affection. He reached his hand out and Frenzy slowly touched it. Sam saw the panther lower its offensive and poke at Frenzy with its nose.

**"Ravage."** He gently put his hand on the panther's head.

"Who are they, Frenzy?" Sam asked softly, barely more than a whisper. Frenzy seemed to snap out his reunion-induced trance and backed up to again shield his mate.

**"What are you doing, Frenzy?" **Soundwave questioned, leaning back slightly. Frenzy gave a back look at Sam and then turned back to the larger robot.

**"He is my spark bonded mate," **Frenzy replied. **"I will not allow you to take him to harm." **

Soundwave stood up to his full height and stared down at Frenzy.

**"You are sided with the Autobots," **he stated. Frenzy gave a wordless affirmative accompanied with a nod. There was a pause. **"And Barricade as well…and a…sparkling…?"**

**"NO!"** Frenzy shrieked, putting his hands to his head. **"No! Do NOT tell Starscream! NO!"**

"Frenzy, what's wrong!?" Sam demanded, beginning to get scared. Before Frenzy could answer, a black Mustang came roaring down the road, transforming instantly into Barricade who had his longblade unsheathed in an instant.

**"Back off from them, Soundwave!"** he bellowed, preparing to strike. Soundwave remained where he was, and then his chest suddenly opened and a silver mini-Transformer leapt out and landed in front of Sam. This small robot was almost identical to Frenzy, save for this one had red optics rather than blue, and it was slightly taller.

**"Rumble!"** Said 'bot made a leap for Sam, but was smacked out of the way by Barricade, who picked Sam and Frenzy up in one swipe and took off.

_**"Optimus Prime, we have issues!"**_he shouted through his comm. link, trying to balance the boy and his partner in one hand and swipe at Ravage and Rumble with the longblade on his other.

_**"Define 'issues',"**_Optimus said, but just as urgently.

_**"Soundwave, Ravage, and Rumble. Good enough definition for you!?"**_

_**"We're on our way."**_

"_Get off of me, you little glitch!" _Barricade hollered, kicking Rumble off of his leg. "I HATE your brothers, Frenzy!"

"_Brothers_!?"

"LATER!"

Barricade kept running until he was met by a Camaro, who transformed on sight of them. "Take them, Bumblebee!" Barricade yelled, handing Sam and Frenzy to him. Bumblebee took them, but then a shuriken flew out of nowhere and embedded itself in the back of Sam's shoulder. Sam screamed and pitched off of Bumblebee's hands. Bumblebee caught him before he hit the ground.

Frenzy let out a wordless shriek of rage and dove right off of Bumblebee's hand and right at Rumble. They rolled and scuffled all over the ground and Frenzy managed to dismember one arm before Barricade snatched him off.

"Where the fuck is everyone!?" Barricade demanded of Bumblebee, and not two seconds after he asked did Optimus and the twins come crashing through the woods, weapons out and faceplates up. "ABOUT TIME, YOU SLAGHEADS!!!"

"Excuuuuse us!" Sunstreaker sassed shooting at Ravage. Optimus immediately saw Sam's bleeding form in Bumblebee's hands.

"What happened?" he demanded.

"Rumble," was all Bumblebee said, gently cradling Sam in his fingers so he wouldn't injure him even more.

"Take him back to the base," Optimus said, watching Soundwave make his way to them. "You too, Sunstreaker. No complaining!" Bumblebee nodded and they began to run back to the base. Frenzy kept trying to get out of Barricade's grip to tear off more limbs from Rumble, and finally did, only to get pounced by Ravage en route. The mecha-panther bit and tore at Frenzy like a real panther would a human, and Barricade kept having to dodge Soundwave's attacks while trying to get the mechanical feline to stop tearing metal off of his partner.

A single all-out scream of pain erupted from Frenzy, and the Autobots saw Ravage tear out Frenzy's chest, metal shrapnel flying everywhere. While the red twin busied himself with the still-active Rumble and Optimus with Soundwave, Barricade brought his longblade down in one swing and cleaved Ravage in half, making the mecha-panther yowl in pain and fall writhing on the ground next to his twitching and whimpering partner.

Barricade picked up the pieces of Ravage and threw them at Soundwave, who stopped battling Optimus long enough to catch and hold them like a priceless, now-broken artifact. Rumble ran back to Soundwave and dove back into his chest. Soundwave himself deposited the halves of Ravage in his chest and transformed into an indigo Jeep and took off. Sideswipe took off after him, and Optimus walked over to Barricade, who had his hands inches away from Frenzy, but couldn't seem to bear to touch him.

"Oh, Frenzy…" he murmured, his fingers twitching. Frenzy twitched violently and looked pleadingly up at his partner, his one good arm reaching out.

"Cade-Cade," he sputtered in English. Barricade gently scooped up his partner in his cleaved fingers and carefully pulled him up to cup him against his chest.

"Come on, Barricade," Optimus said solemnly. "Ratchet might be able to save him." Barricade nodded and took the lead back to the base, already plotting revenge against Soundwave and his Cassettes.

PB 

Fixing Sam was the easy part for Ratchet. Take shuriken out, lazar-stitch him up, and make him lie down to replenish his lost blood—easy. But he took one look at Frenzy and shook his head.

"I don't think I can repair that kind of damage," he said honestly, looking at the pitiful pile of metal in front of him. Frenzy's electric blue optics were flickering at this point, indicating his spark casing in his head had been damaged. "I would actually count him lucky. If his spark case had been in his chest, he'd be gone. But that's beside the point. He'll need a completely new body, Barricade, and I don't have enough spare materials to make it with."

"Then take some from me," Barricade said without a pause. "Take whatever you need—I don't care. Just…just fix him."

Ratchet blinked his optics, amazed at the amount of affection the former Decepticon had for his partner. But then again, they _were_ life partners. He looked Barricade up and down to evaluate what non-vital parts he would need.

"…And one more thing, Ratchet…" Barricade asked, rather sheepishly. "…Frenzy and I recently discussed an alternative body for him, in case something like this ever happened. …Do you think you can make it with what I have?"

"…It depends," Ratchet said. "What do you have in mind?"

Barricade pressed a finger to his temple and a life-size hologram of what he and Frenzy came up with appeared on the medic table in front of them. Ratchet blinked his optics when he saw it, then looked it over carefully before turning back to Barricade.

"…I can try."

PB 

Starscream looked on with interest at the data Soundwave had managed to escape with. He was furious at first when he heard that Frenzy and Barricade—his top mechanical expert/spy and the closest thing he had to a medic—had sided with the Autobots, but now thought with mad interest at the thoughts of a sparkling and the Witwicky boy's breeding ability Soundwave had picked up from Frenzy's mind.

He left Soundwave to piece together his broken Cassettes and thought to himself on how he could turn this burden into a blessing of his own.

WHAAAA!!!! Screamer knows!!! Whatever shall the Autobots do!? …Well, the hell if I know, I'm making this up as I go along…


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18- Day Off 

After Ratchet put Frenzy under an extended stasis, he began to take what parts he needed from Barricade without taking too much. Barricade was being a little too generous in his donations, and Ratchet had to restrain him from giving anymore. After arranging the donations from Barricade, he retrieved the spare parts he already had and began to think about the arrangements.

Bumblebee stayed by Sam's side all the time his charge slept. He began to get worried when Sam didn't wake up after a day, but Ratchet assured him that the spark bond kept Sam—and Honeydew—in the same stasis. They would wake up when Frenzy was back online.

When he was thoroughly assured of Sam's well-being, Bumblebee proceeded in seeking out Sunstreaker and beating the energon out of him until Ironhide, who had come when he'd heard, felt like pulling the pissed off Camaro off of him. Even Sideswipe didn't object—that much—to his brother's aft-kicking. Barricade did Ratchet a favor by volunteering to put Sunstreaker back together, albeit roughly and purposely leaving out a few details.

PB 

Sam shot up with a short scream out of his sleep. He looked around with slight panic before realizing he was in his bed and not in the woods getting hit with sharp stuff. He looked next to him and saw Honeydew shifting on her pillow, just waking up herself. She opened her optics and blinked up at him.

"'Zee-Zee," she said, her word for Frenzy. Sam's eyes widened when he remembered. The last thing he saw before blacking out was Frenzy getting his chest torn out by Ravage.

"RATCHET!" he hollered, grabbing the sparkling and running into the Ratchet's lab. He skidded to a halt before he ran into medic's leg. "Ratchet! How is Frenzy?!"

"Sam, calm down," Ratchet said, bending down to face him. "Frenzy is alright, in fact…" He looked over behind Sam. "…he's as good as new."

Sam gave him a confused look, then whipped around and bumped into a metal chest; metal arms kept him from falling back. Sam looked up and gaped at the robot before him. "Frenzy…?"

This was not the Frenzy he remembered. This robot was much taller; almost three inches taller than Sam. He wasn't as pencil-thin, but instead had a fuller body and limbs like the other Autobots that were still silver, but had some electric blue slapped on. His optics were the same blue, and even had the same extra extension pair as before. One of the bigger changes was Frenzy now had a more human-esque face, and Sam could see Frenzy was smiling at him.

Frenzy held his arms out to his sides and stepped back. "You lik-ke?" he said with a minimal stutter. Sam nodded, his eyes still roaming the new form. Honeydew clicked happily and held her arms out for her parent. Frenzy took her and she began to examine his new face.

"Wow…" Sam said, looking back up. "…How did…?"

"'Cade-Cade gave me some parts to reb-build me," he said with no real trouble to his speech, though his head did twitch slightly out of habit.

"I had to combine some spare parts with donations from Barricade to give him a new body," Ratchet clarified. "His other one was damaged beyond repair, and his spark case was almost shattered. I had to build him a new body and perform a spark transfer."

"When did you have time to do all that?" Sam asked. Ratchet blinked.

"…A week."

"…A week…?" Ratchet nodded. "I've been out for a week?! How?"

"The spark bond you and Honeydew share with Frenzy kept you in the same extended stasis I had him under," Ratchet said. "Frenzy just came online an hour ago." Sam nodded in understanding and looked at the new Frenzy again.

"It looks great," he said, watching Frenzy click away in Cybertronian to Honeydew, who was still staring at her parent's new image.

"The design was actually his and Barricade's idea," Ratchet commented. "I was actually surprised at the detail they put into making it. He even has a new alt. form."

"Really?" Sam turned to Frenzy. "What is it?"

Frenzy handed Honeydew back to Sam and his body began to shift and rearrange until Sam found himself staring at a small silver and blue Suzuki motorcycle. "Wow…!" he breathed, walking around to examine it. "That's awesome, Frenzy!" The Suzuki whirred happily, then a hologram appeared next to the motorcycle—a skinny boy that looked about Sam's age with spiky white hair and a Sunstreaker-patented 'I'm too sexy fo' this crowd' look on his face.

**"I cant wait to see Sunshine's face when he sees this piece of work,"** Holo-Frenzy said, crossing his arms and leaning back against his alt. form self. Sam burst out laughing and Ratchet snerked and turned away to pretend to work on something else. The Holo-Frenzy disappeared and the Suzuki transformed back into Frenzy.

"You make Sunstreaker look like scrap metal, Frenzy," Sam said, stroking the small 'bot's ego.

"_Who_ looks like scrap metal?!"

Sam blanched and hugged Honeydew tighter to him. "Oh, look at the time—Frenzy, didn't we have a movie to go to with 'Cade and Bee?"

"What mov-vie?"

"The one where boy and 'bot haul ass _out_ of here!" He grabbed Frenzy's harm and ran out of the room, Sunstreaker ranting and shooting at their heels.

PB 

In the end, Sam and Frenzy did got with Bumblebee to a drive-in movie, where they were meeting up with Mikaela and her boyfriend she brought down to have everybody meet. Frenzy activated his hologram and arrived via Suzuki mode and Sam, in Bee. Honeydew remained back at the base with the others to let Sam have some free-roam time.

Frenzy was not thrilled to be seeing Mikaela again, not after she sawed his head off the last time they met. Sam told him to be nice and try to enjoy himself. They met at the drive-in, and Frenzy kept his hologram up and his face pleasant when he saw Mikaela and her boyfriend walking toward them.

"Hi, Sam!" Mikaela greeted happily giving him a hug. Sam hugged her back and turned to her boyfriend. "Sam, this is Nathan. Nathan, Sam." Sam and Nathan shook hands.

"'Kaela's told me a lot about you," he said, smiling.

"Has she now?" Sam said teasingly. Mikaela rolled her eyes.

"Where's Honey?" she asked.

"She's back at home," Sam said. "Optimus told me to go out and stretch my legs."

"That's a weird name," Nathan commented. Sam swallowed.

"…He's…er…Greek, I think," he made up lamely. It seemed to work for Nathan, so he left it alone.

"And who's Honey?"

"My daughter. She's almost two," Sam said, pulling out the picture he had of her in her hologram. Mikaela squealed when she saw her and Nathan smiled.

"She's cute," he said as Sam put the picture away. Frenzy chose then to make his presence known by stepping up and making a throat-clearing sound. Mikaela looked at him, a little put off by his spiky white hair.

"…Who's this, Sam?" Mikaela asked, eyeing him. Frenzy gave her the most pleasant smile he could and extended his hand.

"Frenz," he said, purposely taking the 'y' off and putting a French pronunciation behind it, making it sound like 'Frahnz'. Mikaela took his hand and shook it warily. "I'm Sam's bond—."

"He's my boyfriend," Sam quickly intervened, which wasn't too far from the truth. Frenzy took the hint and went silent. Mikaela looked surprised.

"Boyfriend, Sam?" she asked, a little suspiciously. Sam gave her a 'look'.

"Yes, my boyfriend," he said, his fingers pointedly fingering the Autobot insignia keychain he made and hooked onto his jeans belt loops. Mikaela didn't miss the symbiotic motion and dropped it.

"Nice to meet you, Frenz," she said. Frenzy nodded and put an arm around Sam's waist. She and Nathan walked ahead to get some snacks. Sam let out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding.

**"That went great,"** Frenzy muttered in Cybertronian just loud enough for them to hear. Sam leaned against Bumblebee.

**"You think?"** he replied sarcastically. He heard Bumblebee shudder with laughter under his hood. "Oh, shut it before I manually scan a Volkswagen Beetle into your scanning processor," he said, nudging the door. Frenzy snickered and sat on Bumblebee's hood.

**"Get off before I pop the hood and make you fly off,"** Bee said, only half-joking. Frenzy jumped off anyway.

**"Hard-aft," **he muttered. Bumblebee revved his engine and jerked forward slightly, just enough to nudge the Suzuki.

**"Play nice, you two, or I'll take you home right now!"** Sam scolded. The two Autobots went silent. **"That's better."** He popped the trunk and took out a cooler and moved it to the front seat. Holo-Frenzy himself hopped in the passenger seat and manually reclined the seat.

**"Comfortable, 'Frenz'?" **Bumblebee asked sarcastically. Holo-Frenzy paused, then put his feet up on the dashboard.

**"Am now,"** he replied. Sam got in the driver's seat before Bumblebee could reply. **"What's this movie about?"** he asked.

"I dunno," Sam said, shrugging. "But it has hackers and explosions in it, so I think you'll like it." Holo-Frenzy seemed pleased with this answer and turned to the screen just as the previews came on. Bumblebee turned the frequency to the movie audio and they sat and watched.

True to Sam's prediction, Frenzy loved the movie. The people in the other cars began to stare at the shrieking whacko in the yellow Camaro that laughed hysterically every time a car or building blew up. Bumblebee was getting quickly agitated as Holo-Frenzy kicked his dashboard in a mad fit, and was two kicks away from running over the physical Frenzy in front of him. Fortunately, Holo-Frenzy calmed down in a state of prideful scoffing at the scene where a hacker attempted to break into a guarded facility.

**"I could get that done in a fraction of the time,"** he pointed out to Sam, who nodded and sipped his Red Bull.

"I know," he said. "The government is still pissed at you for the whole Air Force One thing." Holo-Frenzy smiled nostalgically.

**"Oh yeah," **he said. **"I almost forgot about that…"** Sam rolled his eyes as the cops began to shoot at the hacker. **"**_**Kill them! Kill them!**_**" **Frenzy shrieked in Cybertonian. Sam sighed and rested his head on the steering wheel.

"I don't know _how_ I thought this would be different from back at the base," he muttered to the dashboard. He felt Bumblebee shudder with light laughter.

**"I was just thinking the same thing," **Bumblebee said. They both resumed watching the rest of the movie and trying to ignore the mad hologram in the process.

PB 

The movie came to an end, the credits rolled, and people began to drive away, some of them muttering on how they did not enjoy the shrieking commentary from the yellow Camaro. Sam and Holo-Frenzy emerged from said Camaro and met up with Mikaela and Nathan again. This time, Mikaela was looking at Holo-Frenzy suspiciously while Nathan just looked weirded out.

"…You sure like movies, don't you?" Nathan asked Holo-Frenzy, who looked at him innocently.

"Yes, I suppose I d-do," Holo-Frenzy. "Though, that hack-ker was so slow! I mean _I_—!"

"Frenz, someone's touching your bike!" Sam intervened, just trying to get Frenzy to shut up. Lucky for him, some girl was admiring Frenzy, so Holo-Frenzy put his rant on hold to shoo her away. As the hologram was dealing with that, Sam turned back to Mikaela and Nathan.

"…Has he always had that twitch?" Nathan asked, looking over Sam's shoulder at Frenzy, who was yammering away in Cybertronian to the poor unsuspecting girl, though only Sam heard what Frenzy was saying, and it wasn't nice.

"…Yeah," Sam said slowly. "I think he was dropped too many times when he was a kid…" Mikaela kept staring at Frenzy, then took Sam aside.

"I need to talk to you," she said. "We'll be right back," she said to Nathan. She dragged Sam a little distance away. "Sam, is 'Frenz' a holo-Autobot?" she demanded. Sam swallowed hard and nodded.

"Yeah," he said softly. He pointed to the Suzuki. "That's him, right there. He doesn't like anyone to touch him since he got the upgrade…"

"Who is he?" she asked, curious that more Autobots had come. Sam felt a cold sweat come over him.

"…I'd rather not say," he said carefully. "…Though, more Autobots _did_ arrive—two Lamborghini brothers."

"…Lamborghinis, huh?" Mikaela asked, now interested. Sam felt relief that the attention had been diverted from Frenzy.

"Yeah. Just, when you see them, whatever you do, don't touch the yellow one. His paintjob means more to him than Barricade's—."

"_Barricade_!?" Mikaela nearly shouted. Sam mentally slapped himself. Scratch that—he _did_ slap himself. "What the hell is _he_ doing at the Autobot base!?"

"Mikaela, please," Sam pleaded, shushing her. Holo-Frenzy's head turned to look at them. "Jeeze, if you came over more often…anyway, Barricade joined the Autobots, in a nutshell. You can see for yourself, at the next reunion we're having."

"Back up!" Mikaela interrupted. "Reunion?"

"Yeah, we just planned it," Sam said. "You're actually the only one we've contacted for it now. Will you come?" Mikaela tried to process and sort many things at once, then nodded.

"Yes, I will," she said. "But I want some answers when I get there—like why Barricade joined, and is he trustworthy…"

"He is," Sam said. "He's saved my ass more than once. Oh, and he changed his alt. form a little. He's a regular black Mustang now."

"And what about…" She lowered her voice and tone. "…you know…_Frenzy_…?" Sam swallowed again.

"…Just…just come to the reunion, okay?" He knew Mikaela would drop the taboo subject if he acted upset. Well, more upset than usual. He really didn't know how Mikaela would react if he told her that by Cybertronian custom he was _married_ to Frenzy. Mikaela nodded and gave him a hug, then they walked back to Nathan, who had busied himself by looking—not touching—Bumblebee.

"Everything okay?" he asked. Sam and Mikaela nodded and Sam climbed in Bumblebee's driver seat.

"It was great meeting you," Sam said, shaking hands with Nathan again. He looked over and saw Holo-Frenzy climbing up on the real one. "I've got to go—I don't like leaving Honey at home a lot. See you, Mikaela!" With that, he let Bumblebee start himself up and drove off, Frenzy right behind him.

**"What was Mikaela so upset about?" **Bumblebee asked Sam. Sam sighed and let Bee drive.

"I let slip about Barricade," he said glumly.

**"If she has a problem with me or Barricade,"** came Frenzy's voice from the radio, **"she can just take it up with us when she sees us at that reunion of yours."**

**"How many times have I told you this frequency is for emergencies only?!"** Bumblebee demanded. They both heard Frenzy laugh.

**"32,"** he said, then static announced he had signed out of the frequency.

**"…And yet, he continues to hack in," **Bumblebee muttered. Sam smiled.

"Yeah, hard to believe he's older than you, huh?"

_"…Bring the violence, it's significant…!"_

"…Just take it outside…"

**Mmmyep. Next up— Reunions never end happily, do they? I'm just saying…**


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19- Reunion 

Like Frenzy, Barricade was not thrilled about Mikaela coming. He was even more not thrilled about having to meet Lennox and Epps. He didn't even want to see Glen or Maggie, and he didn't even _know_ them. He only knew that Maggie was a genius and Glen was a 'geek', as Frenzy so nicely put it. But he knew that since they were an indirect part of the team, he'd have to face them sooner or later and answer questions and is he _really_ part of the Autobot team now, or is he setting them up for a major screw-over? He spent the rest of the week drowned in high-grade to cope with the stress.

All the affirmatives for the reunion invites came in, and on the happy day, Optimus went to pick up Maggie and Glen, and Ironhide and Will—whom Ironhide kept the whole Barricade-Frenzy thing hush-hush from—along with the rest of the Lennox family went to pick Epps up. Sam convinced Frenzy to stay with Honeydew while he and Bumblebee picked up Mikaela. Frenzy was still pouting when Sam left.

**"Excited about the reunion?" **Bumblebee asked his nervous charge, who was biting his fingernail.

"More like preparing for the shit to hit the fan," Sam replied as Bumblebee turned into Mikaela's driveway.

**"You're really that nervous about what the others will say about you and Frenzy?"**

Sam sighed. "Let's just say I cant wait to turn 21 so I can join Barricade," he said glumly. He saw Mikaela come out of her house and into the driveway. "Hey, Mikaela!" he said cheerfully.

_"She's my cherry pie…put a smile on your face ten miles wide…look so good bring a tear to your eye….sweet cherry pie…!"_

"Down, horn-dog," Mikaela joked, getting in the passenger seat after Bumblebee opened the door for her. "How're you doing, Sam?"

"Well," he said as Bee backed out of the driveway, "I'm dreading the death match between Mission City veterans and ex-Decepticons, I feel like throwing up, and I think the twins have developed a fetish for gay human porn. Other than that, I'm good."

Mikaela stared. "…Gay human porn…?" she repeated. Sam nodded and flunked his head back on the headrest.

"I think they're more than 'just twins'," he said. "I hear _things_ in their room at night sometimes, and I don't think they're playing death metal in their sleep."

Mikaela blushed slightly. "Alrighty then…" she said. "Sam, I've got to ask," she said suddenly. "…_is_ Frenzy at the Autobot base? And tell me the truth." Sam took a shuddery breath and closed his eyes.

"Yes," he said, trying to find the nicest word selection to make her drop the subject. "He is in the Autobot base, and he's been…" He searched for the right word. "…_acceptable_…."

Mikaela opened her mouth to question what that meant, but Bumblebee intervened.

**"You'll know when you get there, Mikaela,"** he said. He noted Sam's stressed posture and searched for something he's saved into the radio in case things got like this.

_"What I desire (temptation)….Keep climbing higher and higher (temptation)….Adorable creatures (temptation)….With unacceptable features (temptation)…"_

Sam sighed and felt relaxed as Honeydew's calming habit reacted on him. "Primus bless Cradle of Filth," he said, using a phrase Barricade patented once when Honeydew had a 'fussy' day. Bumblebee agreed, for he too had the exact thoughts himself. They listened to the metal band until the base was in sight, where Epps was climbing out of Ironhide, along with Will, Sarah, and Annabelle, who was yelling for 'Hide' to change.

"Hey, Will!" Sam called out the window, waving. "Rob! Hi!" Sgt. Epps waved back. Bumblebee came to a stop and let Sam and Mikaela get out before transforming to join Ironhide. Annabelle reached up for Ironhide.

"Up, 'Hide! Anna want up!" she hollered up at him. Ironhide, not wanting to look soft in front of everyone, resisted.

"I picked you up this morning," he said in his no-nonsense voice. Annabelle narrowed her eyes.

"Up NOW, Iwonhide!" she said in an even bigger 'I'm not kidding' voice. Mikaela burst out laughing at Ironhide's surprise as he promptly picked her up gently from the ground. Annabelle immediately smiled and hugged his thumb.

"That is too cute…" Sarah murmured to Mikaela. Bumblebee went into a giggle fit and then rushed inside before Ironhide could break his foot off in his aft. Sam peeked inside and saw that Barricade was sitting apprehensively with Honeydew on his head, her favorite resting place—this month. Frenzy, however, was nowhere to be seen. He felt his stomach drop. Well, time to pick out plots for the graves…

Epps was the first one in the base. He looked around, past Barricade, at the twins, who were squabbling over the high-grade, then back to Barricade. Sam saw this and walked right past him and up to the Mustang. "How was Honeydew?" he asked, trying to make some conversation before things went pear-shaped.

Barricade looked down at him, then plucked the sparkling from his head and gave her to Sam. "She was passable," he said. "I finally got her into something other than Cradle of Filth."

"What?" Sam asked.

"Metallica."

"Nice…" He looked at Epps, who was staring at Barricade, as thought trying to figure out where he knew him from. **"Where's Frenzy?"** he murmured in Cybertronian. Barricade shook his head.

**"I don't know," **he said. **"He disappeared just a few minutes after you left. Try your room."**

"Nah, I've got guests to greet," he said. "Lemme know when you see him, alright?" Barricade nodded, and stared back at Epps. **"Try to be pleasant,"** he added. He looked over at the oblivious twins, sighed, picked up a fork, and threw it at Sideswipe's head. "Hey, we've got guests here, you jackasses!" he hollered at them. Sideswipe getting hit in the head made him drop the high-grade, which splashed on Sunstreaker's chest. "Now mingle!"

**"Slagging fleshling…"** Sunstreaker muttered.

"I heard that!" He turned to the others. "Come on in, everyone! I'll have them introduce themselves!" Epps, the Lennox family, and the newly-arrived Glen and Maggie cautiously stepped in and looked around. Maggie's eyes landed on Honeydew and ran right up.

"Is that Honeydew?" she gushed. "Can I hold her, please?" Sam smiled and gently handed the little sparkling over to Maggie. Honeydew blinked up at her with her huge golden eyes, squeaked, and hugged Maggie's arm. "She's _so_ cute!"

Glen looked over her shoulder and stared at Honeydew. "Damn, she is cute…" he said. Mikaela, Epps and the Lennoxes also oohed and ahhed over her, and Sam inconspicuously looked around for Frenzy, who still hadn't shown himself.

Meanwhile, Ratchet noticed that Barricade was mimicking Sam's action of looking for Frenzy. Since the smaller Autobot got his new body, Barricade had some trouble tracking him down. Ratchet blinked and leaned in to talk to him. **"Are you still looking for Frenzy?"** he asked softly in Cybertronian. Barricade nodded.

**"I'm worried," **Barricade said, crossing his arms. **"Frenzy has been a little more distant than usual—especially from Sam." **

**"What do you mean?" **Ratchet asked. He actually thought Frenzy spent too much time with Sam, in his opinion. Barricade looked at Sam, then back at Ratchet.

**"…Frenzy's been feeling…deprived…"** he said, choosing his words carefully. Ratchet blinked.

**"I don't follow,"** he said. Barricade sighed.

**"What I mean is, he's been distant from Sam because he doesn't want to…hurt him again,"** he said. **"I've noticed the changes recently. He's not just protecting Sam out of obligation anymore. He really cares for him now, and doesn't want to hurt him like he did last time."**

**"**_**What**_** are you saying?" **Ratchet stressed.

**"Frenzy is spark-deprived!"** Barricade snapped back, putting his face in one hand. **"He wants to spark with Sam! He needs to get laid! Can you think of another way to say it!?"**

**"Alright, keep it down!" **Ratchet whispered, gesturing with his hand. Sunstreaker had been listening in, and just _had_ to but his two cents in.

**"You're saying Frenzy's hiding out because he's afraid he'll jump Wikikky?"** he said, finding it somewhat humorous. Medic and medic assistant glared lazars at the yellow Lamborghini, who took the hint and went to join his brother at the gathering.

**"Little glitch…"** Barricade grumbled. **"Anyway, I could actually feel arousal from our spark bond just this morning. He wants to spark with Sam—bad."**

Ratchet looked uncomfortable. **"Do you think Sam would agree to spark with him?" **he asked. Barricade shrugged.

**"I don't know," **he said. **"I don't really know why not. There'd be no penetration to speak of…just chest-to-chest contact. But I digress—I'm worried about what will happen if Frenzy looses control."**

**"Don't bring it up until later," **Ratchet said. He smiled when the others came over to greet him. Mikaela was the first to come up to Barricade, a suspicious look on her face. He stared back down at her.

Sideswipe was actually the one to break the ice using Bumblebee's technique: _"I've got this feeling…somebody's watching me…!"_ Barricade threw his high-grade at him to stain his chest to match Sunstreaker's. Sides left grumbling to say hello to Epps.

"Hello," Mikaela said coldly. Barricade nodded.

"Hello," he replied. "Sam speaks of you often."

"I really wish he did the same for me." They left it at that.

Sam was happy to see that nearly everyone was getting along fine. He sat down in a corner of the room to watch everyone mingle. Well, almost everyone. Barricade received nothing but ugly or suspicious looks from everyone, and Sam found himself feeling sorry for him. He sighed and went over to sit next to him.

**"Enjoying yourself?"** he asked softly so only Barricade could hear him.

**"Immensely,"** Barricade said sarcastically, crossing his arms. He paused. **"They don't trust me."**

**"I know," **Sam said. **"Give it time—they'll come around."** Barricade didn't answer, but his posture did relax somewhat. **"They're just concerned about my well-being. As soon as they get to know you, they'll accept you. Just…I dunno…."** He thought for a moment, then smiled. "Hey, Ironhide," he called over. Ironhide gave him a look and complied.

"What?" he asked gruffly.

"Do you know what Will's favorite band is?" Sam asked, though he already knew. Ironhide groaned.

"You mean that vile excuse for music, Metallica?" he said with a hint of bitterness. "That earsore blasts out my speakers every time he puts that damn CD in!" He walked away, grumbling about humans and their crazy music. Sam looked back up at Barricade.

"And your favorite music is…?" he asked, elaborating with his hand. Barricade blinked his optics and looked at Will.

"Touché, kid," he muttered. "What's your point?" Sam sighed and rolled his eyes.

"You have something in common with someone!" he stressed. "Will likes Metallica, and you like Metallica. Step one, finding something in common—success. Step two—make conversation. Go."

"...All respect I had for you just went out the window, kid."

"Fine!" Sam threw up his hands. "Fucking recluse…" He went silent and watched the rest of the gang catch up and talk. He actually found it more enjoyable to watch, rather than participate. Honeydew was thriving in all the attention she was getting, and Epps was saying something about how he and his teenage daughter needed new cars—hack-Lamborghini-cough—and Will and Sarah were wishing Ironhide would let them clean him more often. Mikaela was telling Bumblebee about how Nathan was majoring in mechanical engineering and that she thought him seeing all of them would make him faint from a joygasm. Ratchet wondered what a joygasm was.

Sam was surprised when Barricade suddenly got up and walked outside, careful to avoid everyone. Sam stared after him for a moment before slowly following him. He found the ex-Decepticon sitting against a tree, softly playing 'Sanitarium', which seemed to address the mood. He stopped next to him and looked up. "You alright?" he asked. Barricade looked down at him, then continued to stare into the distance.

"Face it, kid," he said softly. "I wont get along with them. I _helped_ create all this controversy. I _helped _the plot for your abduction and sodomy. They will never forgive me for that." He paused. _"…I _don't forgive me for that."

Sam looked up at him, his face thoughtful. "You…you regret it…?" he asked after a moment. Barricade looked down at him, then nodded, his features forming a light smile.

"And it's your fault," he said humorously. "You made me like you, kid. Congratulations."

Sam laughed, leaning against the mech's leg. "…And you have a sense of humor! You'd get along with Sarah, and Annabelle loves to laugh. I know if Anna ever wants you to pick her up, you'd be gentle because I've seen you pick up Frenzy before." He sat up straight again. "You've just got to work at it. It might take a few years, but they'll accept you. I know they will."

"You think?" Barricade asked.

"I'd bet my spark-filled heart on it," Sam assured. Barricade gave him a bigger smile and moved to stand up to go back inside.

A split second later, a shot rang out and Barricade was crashed through the tree and skidded a few more feet before letting out a yell of pain, a smoking hole gaping through his left arm, which was hanging barely by a few wires. Sam didn't have time to react before he was snatched up by something else swooping down.

**"Skywarp, contact Starscream and tell him we have the breeder!"** he one holding Sam said to the one who shot Barricade.

**"Right, Thundercracker!"**

Sam would have laughed at the Decepticon's name, but at the moment, the flying mech was squeezing him pretty tight. He pounded his fists on the flyer's fingers.

**"Let me down, you piece of—!" **He cut off when 'Thundercracker' gave him a particularly tight squeeze. He let out a cry and coughed.

**"Thundercracker, don't harm him!" **the other one, Skywarp, said. **"Starscream told us to bring him in completely unharmed! If he's unable to perform properly, I'm telling him it was on **_**your**_** head!"**

**"Yeah, yeah…" **Thundercracker muttered. He put Sam someplace in the subspace of his chest, and then transformed into a jet similar to Starscream, and Sam found himself in the cockpit. **"If I were you, I'd stay perfectly calm, breeder,"** he said. **"At my altitude, you'll get yourself killed if you break the window." **Sam bit his lip and obeyed, looking at the quickly distancing Barricade smoldering on the ground. He sat back in the seat and felt tears well up in his eyes.

He fucking hated reunions.

**ZOMFG!!! Sam encounters Starscream next! YAY!**


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20- Deals 

It didn't take long for the others to come running out in time to see Sam being carried away by the two Seekers and Barricade groaning in pain, trying to sit up. Bumblebee ran up to Barricade and grabbed him roughly. "WHERE'S SAM!?" he screeched, shaking the injured mech. Barricade growled and smacked Bumblebee's hands off of him.

"Skywarp and Thundercracker," he said roughly. "There was a surprise attack…" He shook his head. "They're taking him to Starscream. That's what I gathered."

Bumblebee's hands shook and he put them to his head. "Oh…Primus, not again…" he choked. "Not again…!"

"Did you see which way they went?" Optimus demanded, helping Barricade sit all the way up. Barricade used his good arm to point south.

"South," he said. "…I don't think they'll harm him, though," he added after a moment.

"What do you mean?" Optimus said.

"I heard Skywarp tell Thundercracker not to harm him," he said. He paused. "I also heard…'breeder'…" Optimus nearly dropped Barricade turning to Ratchet.

"Where's Frenzy?" he demanded. Ratchet shook his head.

"I don't know," he said. "He disappeared this morning, right after Sam left." He paused. "Optimus, you don't think Frenzy…?"

"I would like to say no, because of the spark bond," Optimus said darkly. "But truthfully, I cant say. I really cant." He was surprised when Barricade shoved him away.

"Frenzy would _never_ betray a bond!" he snarled. "Not for _anyone_! If he's not around, then Skywarp and Thundercracker must have gotten to him first! If he went willingly, it was because they must have threatened his mate and sparkling! Fuck, he's going to go spastic if he finds out they hurt _me_! How _dare_ you question his loyalty—!"

"How dare _you_ speak to Optimus Prime that way!?" Ironhide growled, charging his cannons.

"Bring it, scrap metal!"

"ENOUGH!" Optimus roared, standing up. "Ironhide, cannons away! Barricade, enough instigating! We need to focus on finding Sam, _not_ arguing!" He bent back down and helped Barricade to his feet. "Barricade, we need your help on this one. Ratchet, help him get his arm functional again. Ironhide, I need you and the twins to take everyone else home."

"Yessir," they all said.

Sarah put her arm around Mikaela, who had burst into tears. Anna, just aware enough to know something was seriously wrong, was quiet. Maggie held Honeydew closer to her as the sparkling made pained crying sounds against her shoulder. Glen put his hand on Maggie's other shoulder, and Will and Epps just looked pissed. Barricade followed Ratchet into the lab, shooting Ironhide a dirty look en route. Ironhide returned it, then transformed along with the twins and allowed the humans to get in.

Maggie, remembering she was holding Honeydew still, walked over to the angsting Bumblebee and gently held her out to him. He didn't look up until Honeydew held out her arms and sadly whimpered "Bee…" Bumblebee looked up and stared at Honeydew for a moment before holding out his hand and letting Maggie gently place her in it. Honeydew whimpered and hugged his finger tightly. "Bee…Daddy…Zee-Zee…?"

Bumblebee knew she was asking where her parents were. He lowered his head and held her against his chest. Maggie took that as a sign to leave and quietly climbed inside the red Lamborghini. The others left, and Optimus was left with Bumblebee and the sparkling outside.

The Autobot leader watched with a sad spark as Bumblebee comforted the crying Honeydew. He was worried about the sparkling, for he knew what happened when spark bonds were separated over long distances; especially now, what with Honeydew so young, and having _both _parents away from her. He walked over and put a hand on Bumblebee's shoulder.

"Let's go inside," he said softly. Bumblebee nodded and carried Honeydew into the base, stopping once to look due south.

PB 

Sam didn't know how long he'd been out, but he was jerked awake when Thundercracker touched land then transformed, leaving him in the uncomfortable subspace. He looked up and saw through a small opening that they were walking into someplace underground. It was dimly lit, and Sam couldn't really tell where they were going. After a few minutes of walking, Thundercracker stopped short and reached into his subspace and gently grabbed Sam.

Sam felt himself be lifted out of the jet's chest and held firmly but gently in front of…the temperature suddenly dropped.

"Hello, Sam Witwicky," Starscream said in a sickeningly friendly voice. He held out his hand and Thundercracker handed Sam over. "Thank you, Thundercracker, Skywarp."

"No problem, brother," Skywarp said, turning to join a small group of Decepticons in the other side of the large area. Sam recognized Soundwave, who turned his head to stare emotionlessly at the human. A large one Sam didn't recognize also stared at him with cold, dark green optics.

"Oh, where are my manners?" Starscream said with fake abash. "Allow me to introduce my men." He uncurled his sharp fingers to allow Sam to sit almost comfortably in his palm. "You've already met Soundwave and his Cassettes—Rumble, Ravage, and…" He paused when a very small, bat-sized—and shaped—mech flew right in front of him and beeped curiously. "…Laserbeak." He turned to the large Decepticon. "And this is Demolisher, my second-in-command.

"And I also see you've met my Seeker brothers, Skywarp…" He gestured to one jet that was slightly smaller than Starscream. "…And Thundercracker." The last one was the smallest, and gave Sam a sadistic grin and waved. Sam scowled at him, then looked up at Starscream, still looking thoroughly pissed.

"And why the hell am I here?" he demanded. "What were they saying about me being a 'breeder'? What's going _on_!?"

"Which question do you want me to answer first?"

"Fuck you!"

Starscream seemed to find that humorous. He turned and sat down a huge throne-like chair. 'Sheesh, narcissistic much?' Sam thought. He cradled Sam in one hand and leaned his head against the other.

"You are here because you are valuable to me," he said evenly. "Skywarp and Thundercracker called you a 'breeder' because that is what you are. What's going on?" He paused to laugh lightly. "You're going to breed for us."

Sam blinked and stared up at him. "Care to run that by me again?" he said slowly. Starscream slowly brought his hand up so he and Sam were eye-to-optic.

"You. Are. Going. To. Breed. For. Us," he said slowly and deliberately. "You have bred for Frenzy, and now I want you to breed for us." He paused. "Or, rather, _me_."

**"Oh, **_**hell**_** no!"** Sam screamed in Cybertronian. **"I am **_**not**_** going to 'breed' for you! How the **_**hell**_** would that work, anyway!?"**

**"Simple," **Starscream said smoothly without missing a beat. **"The same way Frenzy did it—sexually, you call it. Oh, size wont be an issue," **he added, seeing Sam's aghast expression. **"We have…ways to overcome that difference."**

**"How…?"** Sam asked carefully. Starscream grinned cruelly.

**"Every hear of a spark transplant?"**

Sam's eyes widened as he knew exactly what Starscream had in mind. In a panic, he jumped down from Starscream's hand, onto his lap, and barely managed to keep his footing as he landed hard on the floor and began to run. He didn't hear Soundwave open his chest, nor did he see Rumble scramble out and dive-tackle Sam to the ground.

"Get _off_!" Sam screamed, kicking the small 'bot in the chest. Rumble screeched angrily at him, then reformed one arm into a long, sharp blade and raise it above his head. Sam braced himself for impact, but reopened his eyes when another familiar screech and the larger form of Frenzy tackling his Cassette brother.

**"You said he would not be harmed!" **he screamed at Starscream, who had gotten up by this point and was making his way over.

**"Soundwave, keep your Cassettes to yourself until needed!" **he snapped, picking up Rumble and flicking him over into Soundwave's arms. He picked Sam back up, albiet slightly tighter now, and also picked up Frenzy. "My apologies," he told Sam, though Sam knew he wasnt. "Allow me to take you to your room for the time being. I can have your mate fill you in there, and tomorrow, we'll begin the transfer process."

As he walked toward wherever they were going, Sam kept looking over at Frenzy with betrayal in his eyes. 'Was he working with Starscream the whole time?' he asked himself. He finally looked away, not wanting to look at Frenzy.

"Here we are," Starscream announced, opening a door and walking in. The small--even for a Transformer--room was rather dull and depressing. Starscream deposited them on the large recharge pad and walked away. "I will see you both tomorrow," he said cheerfully. "Enjoy your last night of humanity." With that, he left.

Sam glared at Frenzy with tearful hate in his eyes and recoiled back when Frenzy got up and walked over to him.

"Sam," he said pleadingly, his electric blue eyes flickering. "Let me ex-xplain."

**Explanations and a bit of a lemon next. Primus, cliff-hangers are fun! (sharp stuff thrown at my head) Owww...**


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21- Trust 

"Explain…?" Sam asked thickly, his voice shaking with rage. "Explain?! What is there to explain, Frenzy!? You _fucking _betrayed me!" He turned his back on Frenzy and crossed his arms, resisting the urge to throw something—preferably Frenzy—off the recharge pad.

"Sam, please…"

"_NO_! I _don't _want to hear it!" Sam hollered, covering his face with his hands. "You fucking _sold _me to Starscream!" He whipped around and pushed Frenzy with both arms. "What did he pay you!?" he demanded. "What did he offer!? What could he have given you that would make you betray me!?"

"Sam!"

"Was Honeydew and I not good enough!? And Barricade! He got _hurt_ because of you! Well, was it worth it, _Decepticon_?! _Was it_!?"

SLAP

Sam froze when Frenzy's hand collided with his face. He was reeled back and nearly fell over backward, but Frenzy grabbed his wrists and made Sam look at him.

**"I never betrayed you, Sam!" **Frenzy stressed, his voiced raised a pitch higher than normal. **"I would **_**never**_** betray you **_**or**_** our sparkling! I was taken, just like you! The only reason I agreed to come was because if I didn't, Starscream was going to take Honeydew and Primus only knows what he'd do with her!"** He loosened his grip on Sam's wrists. **"I have something wonderful with you, Honeydew, Barricade, and the Autobots. I'm happy. I would not just leave something good like that. I am not stupid."**

Sam listened to Frenzy's explanation and felt tears run down his face. He lowered his head in shame, not wanting to look at his mate in the optics. Frenzy saw Sam's shame and gently put his arms around him and pulled them chest-to-chest. Sam immediately felt a trusting comfort pulse through his spark-heart.

"Sam, there are m-many things I need to tell you," Frenzy continued, still holding Sam to him comfortingly. "Most-t importantly…your spark." Sam lifted his head and gave Frenzy a confused look. Frenzy led them to the inclined head of the recharge pad and sat them down.

"…What about my spark?" Sam asked slowly. Frenzy was silent for a moment, collecting his thoughts.

**"When the Allspark was destroyed,"** he said slowly, **"it gave you a spark of your own—a gift, Optimus said, for keeping it from evil hands." **He paused. **"But your spark is so much more, Sam. So much more."**

"So, what is it?" Sam asked, beginning to get anxious.

**"Sam, the spark in your heart holds the life-giving capability of the Allspark itself." **He paused again. **"When I raped you, the spark in your heart created a bond with mine, and took essence of both to create a new spark, and with the human attributes embedded into your spark passed to the sparkling, a body formed itself like a human child." **He stopped to see how Sam was taking it. Sam said nothing. **"Honeydew carries that very attribute herself, and when she comes of age to mate, she too will be able to reproduce as you can. This is what Starscream is counting on. He wants you to produce more sparklings—Transformers that can self-produce like humans. Sam…" **He held Sam more securely to him. **"…Starscream wants to use the gift the Allspark left you to populate the Earth—and universe—with Decepticons and ultimately overpower the Autobots."**

Sam swallowed hard, his eyes wide with disbelief. "B…but why make me a Transformer?" he stuttered, pulling his arms around himself. Frenzy again tightened his hold on Sam.

**"This way," **he said bitterly, **"you will be able to produce more, longer. That, and he will be able to father a few himself." **He trailed off, his voice becoming sad. **"It pains me to know I cannot do anything myself to stop him from changing you; I don't know if I can even stop him from mating with you. If it were a human, they would be dead. But Starscream…"** He shook his head. **"I can only beg for your forgiveness if or when that time comes…"**

Sam fell silent again. He could feel it in his spark-heart that he _was_ going to become human no more the next morning. Letting out a sob, he threw his arms around Frenzy and buried his face in his metal chest. Frenzy wordlessly held him and let his mate cry.

After about an hour, Frenzy pulled Sam up to face him. Sam looked at him, a little confused, and feeling something in their spark bond that felt odd. "What's wrong…?" he asked softly. Frenzy's hand stroking his face was only response. "…Frenzy…?"

"I feel so ashamed…" Frenzy said softly, his optics dimming slightly. "…for the past-t few weeks, I've been feeling…" He lowered his head so his mouth was next to Sam's ear. "…the _urge_ to spark with you…"

Sam's breath was blockaded halfway up his windpipe. That feeling he was receiving from Frenzy was…arousal…? "Frenzy…?"

"I need it, Sam," Frenzy said, his other hand stroking down Sam's arm. "Bonded spark mates _need_ the raw contact-t of sparks…" Frenzy's hands began shaking. "…I didn't want-t to hurt you again…so I hid it…" He pulled Sam to him again. "…Please," he said, stroking Sam's hair. "…let me spark with you…now…before tomorrow…"

Sam was anxious at the mention of sex, Cybertronian or otherwise, but he had to admit to even himself that he too felt the need to be as close to Frenzy as physically possible. He pulled back and looked Frenzy in the optics.

"…Don't hurt me…" he said, 'again' falling silent, but still there. Frenzy shook his head and gently lowered Sam onto his back on the surface of the pad.

**"All you need removed is your shirt," **Frenzy said huskily, his fingers already playing with the hems. Sam sat up slightly, allowing Frenzy to take his shirt off and bunch it up to let Sam use it as a pillow. **"Now just relax,"** he said. He stroked his fingers over his chest and it opened, revealing a brilliantly glowing spark. Sam's eyes glued to it, not remembering seeing such beauty before. Even with the small distance between them, Sam could feel it gently pulsating, the butterfly-light throbs making his own spark react with pulses of its own. The simple pulsation was pleasing in and of itself; Sam rested his head back on his shirt pillow as pleasant warmth flowed through his body.

**"I'm going to press our chests together,"** Frenzy said, making sure he didn't startle his mate. **"This gets intense from hereon out. Are you sure you want to continue?" **

Sam looked at Frenzy's flickering optics and heard the care in his voice. He'd given him a choice—he would pay it back. Sam nodded and put his hands on Frenzy's shoulders, slowly applying pressure to pull Frenzy down slightly. Barely an inch down, a deep pulse erupted between them, making Sam cry out and let go and throw his head back.

**"I told you it would be intense," **Frenzy reminded. **"It only gets more intense." **Sam nodded for Frenzy to continue. Frenzy, still keeping his body a small distance from Sam's gently tucked his hands under Sam's body and gathered him up loosely into his arms. He looked at Sam for a moment, then slowly lowered his body closer to Sam's.

Sam cried out again, louder this time, and began to hyperventilate. Frenzy pulled back slightly for an adjustment, paused, then folded his arms behind Sam's back and quickly pulled Sam up to him, crushing their chests together.

The effect was so overwhelming, Sam's mouth opened, but nothing came out. He clutched Frenzy's back so tightly he thought he felt dents where his fingers were. Frenzy himself let out a twitching hiss and dug his fingers into Sam's back. His spark was on fire; flares hotter than from any star in the universe erupted from his spark into Sam's, which absorbed and returned it, creating a connected bond of pure consciousness. He gently pressed his mouth to Sam's neck and ran his gloss over a small area, making Sam whimper, but the human was beyond doing anything else.

Slowly, he released the pressure of his hold on Sam, his chest withdrawing slightly, then tightened again, creating another flare. This time, Sam screamed briefly before he did it again and again, creating a pattern of flares that drove Sam out of his mind and body.

It occurred to Sam somewhere in his mind that this wasn't meant for humans for a _reason_. Sex, he imagined, couldn't compare to this by a light-year. It was like one long, intense orgasm; on that constant thin line between climax and release. It drove Sam to tears, feeling the good, pleasurable pain that ignited every nerve ending and micrometer of his skin.

Frenzy, though not quite so affected as he had been built for this kind of intercourse, was also in a state of perpetual ecstasy. The closest he had come to this was with Barricade, but he had never been the bonded spark mate to the larger mech. He knew enough that the deeper the spark bond ran, the more intense it was. He didn't expect it to run _this _deep, however. But he wasn't complaining.

What seemed like two eternities and a forever later, an ultimate flare erupted between them, making both of their sparks explode with pleasure no living being should encounter in their mortal life. Frenzy began to scream in unintelligible Cybertronian, Sam doing the same, and then, it was over. A gentle spark flutter later, they were just lying there trembling and holding the other for fear of falling from their high.

Really an hour or so later, Frenzy shakily sat up on his arms and looked down at his mate. Sam was finally breathing, though a little deeper than normal, and his eyes were half-lidded. His lips were slightly parted and moved slightly, as though silently reciting something in his head. Frenzy gently stroked Sam's hair from his eyes with his fingers, and Sam's eyes followed the movement.

"**Are you okay, Sam?" **Frenzy asked softly. Sam's eyes shifted to Frenzy, the light brown flickering with a golden light; excess spark influence still getting digested in his system.

"…**I think so…"** he replied in a whisper. Frenzy gently picked the human up in his arms, noting that Sam was completely limp, his brain still trying to file everything into their proper order. He leaned against the slight incline on the recharge pad and closed his chest to allow his spark to recuperate, then leaned Sam's head on his chest.

"…**If anything good comes from you transferring into another body," **Frenzy said slowly, **"it's that you wont be so drained after sparking, and that you can do it more often. Sparking for a human might be lethal if done too much." **

"**I'll take that into consideration,"** Sam murmured, his eyes closing. Frenzy stroked his mate's hair, his optics going offline as well.

"**It doesn't hurt," **Frenzy said suddenly. Sam mumbled to show he was listening. **"You're just put into stasis, and then you wake up like nothing happened, just, in a new body. That's all."**

Sam was silent for a moment, then he willed his body to lift just enough to kiss Frenzy on the mouth. **"Thank you,"** he said, that last exertion draining him to unconsciousness against Frenzy.

PB 

Starscream sat in his designated 'leader' seat, an amused expression on his visage. It was pretty obvious what the breeder decided to do on his last night of being human, and he was just fine with that. He was even more fine with the idea of being able to do that himself, just as soon as he got the spark into the new body…

Eh, stop there. 'Nuff said, y'think? (sips Red Bull) Mmm…fan-sent Red Bull—the best!


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22- Transformation 

Frenzy was jerked out of recharge at the sound of the door opening. His optics flickered on to see Thundercracker poke his head in.

"Good morning, star shine," he said cheerfully. "The Earth says 'hello!'" Frenzy growled at him and gently shifted the still-sleeping Sam in his arms.

**"You are fried in the mainframe,"** he said, making a general statement. Thundercracker shrugged and stepped in quietly.

**"Starscream asked me to bring him in while he's still asleep,"** he said. **"His new body is ready and waiting for the transfer. It shouldn't take more than an hour for him to wake up."** He walked up to the recharge pad and gently held his hand out next to Sam's body. **"Come on, before he wakes up. I don't want to be the one to anesthetize him."**

Frenzy was still for a moment, then gently arranged Sam in Thundercracker's hand. Thundercracker slowly picked him up and held him with both hands. Sam just shifted in his hands and remained asleep.

**"Starscream said you can watch, if you want," **Thundercracker added, walking to the door. Frenzy hissed lightly.

**"Tell Starscream he can fly into a car compactor," **he said bitterly. **"And, he can fuck himself."**

**"Will do," **Thundercracker said, walking out the door. Frenzy let out an ansty whir and curled up on himself.

"_**Cade-Cade…"**_ he murmured through his frizzled comm. link. _**"…Zee-Zee needs help…"**_

PB 

Just as Ratchet was helping put the last cable hooked up in Barricade's arm, the Mustang suddenly shot up and put a hand to his temple.

"Slag it, Barricade!" Ratchet began, but was hushed when Barricade threw his other hand up to silence up. "…Barricade…?"

"…Frenzy…" he murmured. He stepped away a few strides and listened. "…'Cade…Zee….help…" He jerked up and walked over to the lab table and sat down, his optics sliding out of focus and flickering slightly.

_**"…Frenzy…where are you…?"**_

Ratchet watched with anxious interest as Barricade's mental link searched for Frenzy's, not moving. Barricade was silent for a few moments, then began to mutter something in unintelligible Cybertronian that sounded similar to Frenzy's garbled speech. He couldn't really catch anything Barricade was saying. 

After a few moments, Barricade again shot up and ran for the main base area. "Optimus!" he yelled, searching for the Autobot leader. "Optimus, I know where they are!"

PB 

Frenzy slumped against the inline of the recharge pad, exhausted from the mental exertion of connecting with Barricade. He didn't like being away from his partner, even when they had separate jobs to do. Now they were in different countries, and it was exhausting to talk through their private comm. link. But now Barricade had the general location of their position, which was barely three day's drive away. He just prayed to Primus Almighty that even though they wouldn't get there in time to stop Sam's change, they would stop Starscream from doing anything to Sam. He let his optics go offline to get a light recharge before getting up to comfort Sam.

PB 

The first thing Sam noticed when consciousness came back to him was that he felt _very_ different. For one, it was like even though his eyes were shut, his brain was processing about a thousand things at once. His limbs felt so heavy when he tried to move them. He made a small sound and paused. _That_ felt weird, too. He willed his eyes open, and then, like turning a TV on, he could see.

…..What the _hell_…?

The closest he could describe this was looking through military-style binoculars and seeing odd things in his periph. He looked around for a few moments before looking down at his body. He slowly raised his hands and stared at them, slowly flexing the digits. Moving on, he lowered his gaze to his legs, and then his peripheral caught something on the small table next to him. He looked over at it and felt his spark recoil.

All that came to his mind—_scream._

PB 

Starscream had just left to talk to the other Decepticons when an audio-receptor shattering scream resounded through the entire underground base. He dropped whatever he was about to say to rush to the lab, nearly tripping over Frenzy en route.

**"What did you **_**do **_**to him!?"** Frenzy screamed at Starscream as he ran ahead.

**"Nothing!"** Starscream retorted. **"Other than transfer his spark and leave him to adjust, nothing!"**

**"You left him **_**alone**_**!? You son of a glitch, how could you!?" **Frenzy beat Starscream to the lab and rushed inside—and stopped short.

Sitting up screaming on the lab table was a smaller-sized mech who had his head in his hands and his knees pulled up to his body. The pitch of his screaming voice was making the equipment in the lab quake and there was already broken glass littering the floor. Frenzy snapped out of his shock and scrambled up on the lab table right up to the now much larger Sam.

"Sam!" he called up, gently touching Sam's leg. "Sam, it's-s me, Frenzy! I'm here! Please, c-calm down!" He crawled onto Sam's legs and put his hands on Sam's hands. "Sam!"

Sam's screams slowly subsided to hysterical whimpering as he looked from his hands at Frenzy. Frenzy saw that Sam's optics were now the same color as Honeydew's—a deep golden color. His features were slightly reminiscent of his human face. He stared at his smaller mate, then grabbed him and hugged him to his chest. It was almost like hugging Mojo, with this new size difference, except Frenzy hugged back, murmuring quiet comforts in his audio receptors. After a moment of silence, Frenzy pulled back slightly and looked at Sam.

"What hap-ppened?" he said softly. Sam turned his head away from the other table, then let Frenzy go with one hand and pointed at the table. Frenzy looked where Sam was pointing and felt fury run through him.

Lying on the other table was Sam's human body. But that wasn't the problem, Frenzy knew. What sent Sam in that fit was that the body's chest had been cut open—and was still open for all the world to see, coagulated blood seeped onto the table around him. Frenzy turned, fuming, to Starscream.

**"What is your problem!?" **he hissed. **"How could you have just **_**left**_** his body there, without even closing him up? For Primus's sake!"** He turned back to the mech Sam and gently touched his face. "It's okay, Sam," he said softly. "I'll fix your human body up and preserve it. It's okay…"

Sam made a whimpering sound and nodded, still not looking at his old body. Frenzy stroked Sam's face before hopping down.

**"Do you have a laser stitch?"** he demanded. Starscream walked over to his tray of random things and picked a foot-and-a-half long rod and brought it over to the human body.

**"I'll do it," **he said, slowly folding the skin back to the center of the chest. **"You take him to your room. Try to escape, and I'll let Soundwave and your brothers have free reign over your remains." **

Frenzy gave him a dirty look and then turned back to his mate, who swung his legs over the edge of the table and stood up, only to fall right down. Frenzy immediately jumped down off the table and touched Sam's head. "Are you okay, Sam?!" he asked urgently. Sam raised his head off the floor and gave Frenzy a pitiful whine noise before trying to get up.

Starscream sighed and put down the stitch to stick his head out the door. He said something in Cybertronian Frenzy didn't catch, and stepped back when Thundercracker walked in.

**"Assist our new addition to his room," **he said, turning back to his stitch-up process. Thundercracker stared at Sam for a few moments before walking over and picking him up off the floor.

"Can you walk?" he asked. Sam shook his head, which lowered in shame. "S'okay," he said, shrugging. He bent down and tucked Sam's legs into his arm and carried him out bridal style. Frenzy followed close, keeping his optics on Thundercracker for any funny business. Thundercracker walked towards Sam's room, his optics shifting down every once and awhile to look at the former human curiously. He almost missed the door, but collected himself in time to turn to the door and let it slide open.

He walked over to the bed and gently laid Sam down on it, then stepped back to get a quick glance to store into his memory banks. The new Transformer was small—just slightly smaller than Jazz once was. His body as a whole was very slender with silver and black material composing his body. His optics were a bit larger than normal, and glowed a gentle gold in the dim room. His overall form was delicate, much like a femme's, but he could tell that once he recovered and found an alt. form that would fill him out, he would be quite an impressive 'bot.

He turned and walked out the door to leave Frenzy and Sam to themselves, looking back once at Sam.

When he had gone, Frenzy scrambled up to the table and onto Sam's chest. "Are you alright-t?" he asked softly. Sam turned his head to the side and blinked his optics.

"...I dont know..." he said softly. "I mean, I feel so...weird, like I'm not even me...but at the same time I feel natural...aside from the fact that I cant even stand up on my own..."

"It'll pass-s," Frenzy said, lying on Sam's chest front-down. "Your syst-tems just have t-to get everything in work-king order, and then you can walk, jump-p, sk-kip...whatever." He felt better when Sam's mouth perked slightly in a small smile. He pressed his body to Sam's chest and focused on good feelings to help calm Sam down. "We'll be ok-kay, Sam. I p-promise..."

**PB**

Barricade finished briefing Optimus on Frenzy's and Sam's location--which was somwhere in northwestern Mexico--and allowed Ratchet to finish fixing his arm. He wanted to go NOW, but Ratchet's medic-logic-whateverthehell made him wait until he was in full working order and everyone got a full recharge before going. He spent the whole night worried about his parnter and Sam--so far his only friend other than Frenzy. He knew something was off-kilter; he could feel it in his spark. He could tell by looking at Bumblebee and Honeydew that they felt the same way he did.

Honeydew hadnt stopped crying since that morning, when Barricade first got the message from Frenzy. Bumblebee had been keeping his optics on Honeydew and rubbing his chest where his spark casing was under, like it hurt. Bumblebee also refused to sleep, and put up such a fight about it Ratchet had to put him under forced recharge, and was hoping he wouldnt have to do the same for Honeydew.

Barricade finally felt the weight of everything fall on him and felt his optics dim with exhaustion when he felt something on his arm. He looked up and saw Honeydew staring at him with her large golden eyes full of worry and saddness. "Cade-Cade..." she said softly, hugging his arm with both of hers. Barricade felt his spark both ache with saddness and flare with appreciation as he lowered his other hand to put over her to keep her safe. She let out a light clicky yawn and nuzzled her head against his arm, then finally settled into her own sleep. Barricade followed her example and promised that he would get her parents back--for her.

**I'll pause it right here. Next up--Sam has to deal with Starscream, and the Autobots roll out! **


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23- Resisting 

When Sam woke up from his short recharge, he first noticed a pleasant weight on his chest. He looked down to see Frenzy curled up over the area he knew his spark was and was making gentle whirring sounds Sam found relaxing to hear. He put his hand on Frenzy's body and held it there, feeling the gentle pulse of the spark in his smaller body. Frenzy moved under his hand and lifted his head up.

"Sam?" he said softly, sitting up. He slid off of Sam's chest and sat next to him on the recharge pad. "How are y-you?"

Sam was silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts. He raised one hand to look at it, then dropped it back on the pad. "I've…been better," he said. "A lot better." He sat up, feeling that it was a lot easier to do so now, and swung his legs over the side. He braced himself, then stood up. His body stayed upright, to his relief, and remained grounded. "…I'm standing," he said evenly. "I guess that's a start…" He looked to the door. "…Where do I go, now?"

"St-tarscream said we could go anyw-where in the base," Frenzy said, his voice bitter at the Seeker's name. "As long as we don't-t try to esc-cape, he said." Sam looked at the door again, then picked up his smaller mate and held him like he used to hold Mojo.

"Then let's go meet His Ass-ness," Sam said thickly, taking small steps to the door until he felt confident of his walking. When the door slid open, he stuck his head out and looked around. He saw nothing, nor did he really hear anything, so he silently stepped out and inched his way down the hall.

Frenzy kept his sharp optics out for anything, not wanting anyone to frighten Sam into deactivation so soon. The halls were so unusually quiet, Frenzy guessed Starscream had been uncharacteristically kind in making sure things were quiet for Sam. Still, he didn't trust him. Not by a long shot.

Sam walked into the main room, which was eerily empty, and stepped around. Since they were underground, the only lighting came from a glowing bar hanging on the ceiling over Starscream's 'throne'.

**"Where **_**is**_** everyone, Frenzy?" **Sam asked softly in Cybertronian. Frenzy shifted in his arms and also looked around.

**"I cant say,"** he said. **"If I know what they're thinking, maybe they're torturing some humans in the nearest town."**

**"Or maybe,"** said a voice behind them, **"they're just being nice and letting you look around undisturbed."**

Sam let out a shriek and whipped around, falling on his aft whist doing so. Frenzy was nearly dropped from Sam's arms. They both looked up to see Starscream staring down at him, an amused look on his visage. Frenzy gave Starscream a dirty look and turned to see if Sam was alright. Sam just looked shaken, but he stood back up, still holding onto Frenzy.

**"You didn't have to scare the hell out of me like that, you know," **Sam muttered, brushing himself off. Starscream laughed lightly.

**"I know,"** he said. **"But the ice needs breaking, and only Thundercracker is willing to go near you." **He walked closer to Sam, the height difference becoming very apparent. Sam only came up to Starscream's chest. Frenzy reared like a cat and made quiet hissing sounds. Starscream ignored him. **"Speaking of which, perhaps you can ask my brother to show you around our base, and even around the area. He finds it 'scenic'. Perhaps you will, too" **With that, he turned and walked out, leaving Sam and Frenzy to themselves.

Skywarp was waiting for him outside the meeting room, his arms crossed and leaning against the wall. **"You're being too kind to the breeder," **he said crossly. **"What is the point of pleasantries? He's a breeder—breed with him!" **

**"You don't get the point, Skywarp," **Starscream said quietly. **"I need to gain his trust if I intend to breed with him. If I only cause him pain and intent of harm, he will fight back, and eventually find a way to escape back to the Autobots. Being nice to him will make him feel more comfortable here, if only fractionally." **He turned away from Skywarp. **"Be sure to extend your most sincere courtesy to our new addition. You never know when it will be **_**your**_** turn to breed."**

Skywarp looked slightly disgruntled at the very thought of _breeding_. He grunted and pushed himself off the wall. **"Whatever you say, 'Scream,"** he muttered. **"Where **_**are**_** Soundwave and Demolisher, anyway?"**

Starscream made a small noise of amusement. **"Probably torturing humans in the nearest town," **he said, walking away.

PB 

Sam had gone back to his room after his encounter with Starscream. Now a few hours later, he wished he hadn't. He was so _bored_, just lying down on his recharge pad and looking at the dull gray wall. Frenzy was leaving him alone, thankfully, knowing he still needed a small bit of adjustment. He couldn't seem to take a nap, and his entire body felt restless—he needed to move.

The door slid open suddenly, and Sam shot up to see Thundercracker come into the room, his hands up. "I come in peace," he said lightly. Sam swung his legs over the edge of the pad.

"What do you want?" he asked suspiciously. Thundercracker gave him a pleasant look.

"Starscream asked me to show you around," he said. "I can sense that you are bored, so allow me to escort you around the base." He held one hand out in a gesture of friendliness. Sam stared at it, not knowing what to do. Frenzy looked at Thundercracker from over Sam's shoulder and glared lasers at him. Thundercracker looked at him. "…And Soundwave has requested your presence, Frenzy," he added.

"Ov-ver my dead-d spark!" Frenzy said angrily. "T-traitors, the lot-t of them!"

"Look who's calling the metal black," Thundercracker said. "I don't know the details—I wasn't there. But all I know is, Soundwave has been asking about you since you arrived." Frenzy still looked skeptical. "You have my word your mate will come to no harm. Starscream wouldn't allow it, and I have no desire to do Sam any harm."

Frenzy thought about it. He knew Thundercracker didn't make a habit of lying, and the brother-like bonds he shared with his fellow Cassettes and the father-like affection he once had from Soundwave had left a small emptiness in his spark. Just talking to Soundwave—or being near him—might……He made an exasperated sound and jumped down from the pad.

**"If **_**anything**_** happens to him, I will disable your spark casing while you recharge!" **he growled. **"Where is Soundwave?"**

"In his quarters, left wing," Thundercracker said, pointing. "I will take good care of Sam, don't worry." Frenzy gave him a curt nod and gave Sam a caring look.

"I'll see you lat-ter," he said. Sam nodded, knowing what Soundwave and his 'brothers' meant to him. He looked back at Thundercracker, who held out his hand again. Sam looked at it before taking it and allowing Thundercracker to help him up.

"Thanks, er….Thundercracker, was it?"

Thundercracker nodded. "You can call me TC for short, if you want." He led Sam out his room and down the hall, where he began to point out where everything was. Sam found that the Decepticon base was larger than the Autobot base, but very barren—save for Starscream's lab—and depressing. Thundercracker seemed to notice that Sam was getting bored.

"Care to go outside?" he asked, getting Sam's attention. "I'm always telling Starscream that he needs to decorate or something—this place _is_ depressing, isn't it?" Sam nodded. "Then come on—I'll show you the outside. It's actually kind of…" He searched for a word. "…pretty."

As they walked for the exit, Sam voiced a question. "Hey, um…why do you talk in English, like, all the time?" Thundercracker looked at him.

"Well," he said, "I figured it would make you feel more comfortable." He left it at that, and so did Sam. Thundercracker led him to the exit and ticked in something at a small console, and the enormous door slid open, revealing an incline to sunlight. "Let's go," he said. Sam followed him up the incline and onto the surface, where he found that he was in a forest or jungle of sorts. Thundercracker helped him up and they stepped away from the incline, where Sam saw that a camouflage hologram covered the entrance hole.

The scene was, as Starscream put it…scenic. It was rather pretty, what with the greenery and birds all around. Sam carefully stepped around, careful not to trample on some red flowers, and looked around, almost catching his head on some hanging vines or something. Thundercracker gently brushed them aside. "Nice, isn't it?" he said. "It barely holds a candle to what Cybertron used to look like, but it is impressive, nonetheless."

"Yes it is," Sam said. He was a little startled when a bird he'd never seen before landed on his shoulder and began to poke gently at his neck with its beak. "That tickles," he said softly so it wouldn't get scared. The bird ruffled its feathers and took off in a brilliant blue flash.

"I'm glad you like it," Thundercracker said. He let Sam look and walk around a little more, making sure he didn't go too far. Sam was too busy to notice Thundercracker's optics moving over his form a little too intensely. After about an hour, he stood up and motioned for Sam to come over. "It's about time we went back in," he said. Sam looked a little put out, but he did as he was told and walked with Thundercracker back to the hologram. Just before they came to it, Thundercracker stopped him.

"I have to ask," he said softly, making Sam look at him in question. "I know that you are not fond of my brother, so you can exclude him, but…if you had to _choose_ who you bred with first, who would you choose?"

Sam was sort of reminded of Sunstreaker bluntness, but at least Thundercracker was _nice_ about it. He thought for a moment, his arms crossed, before saying, "Well, Bumblebee is too much like my brother…but he would be my first choice regardless…" He paused. "…Besides Barricade."

Thundercracker looked surprised at the mention of Barricade. "You must trust him to choose him as a first-choice candidate," he said softly. Sam shifted slightly.

"Well, I do," he said. "We've…gotten kind of close lately…like friends. He tells me things he doesn't let anyone else know. He didn't get close to anyone but Frenzy, but now he's taking care of Honeydew like a little sister…" He shifted again. "I guess…if I could give him a child, then he would feel like he had more to care about and that someone wanted him."

Thundercracker was silent for a moment, then he led Sam into the incline to the base. "Understandable," he said. "Barricade never had a partner before Frenzy. He was always alone, never getting close to anyone. Frenzy was a strange influence on him…" He broke off when they came to the door. Thundercracker opened it and led Sam inside.

"Did we have a nice time outside?" Starscream said, sliding out of nowhere. Sam jumped a little and glared.

"Do you _have_ to do that!?" he snapped.

"Apparently," Starscream responded. He held his hand out to Sam. "If you would." Sam stared at his hand, then walked up to him without taking it.

"What now?" he grumbled as they walked away. Starscream kept walking.

"Have you thought of a name yet?" he asked out of the blue. Sam stared at him.

"I have a name, genius," he hissed. Starscream waved his hand, as though brushing the comment aside.

"'Sam' is your human name," he said. "You are now Cybertronian. And by custom, a spark transplant constitutes a new name. Have you thought of one?"

He had not. "No," he said. "I suppose you think I should now?"

Starscream glanced down at him, then back on the hallway direction, not answering. They turned a few corners, the hallways, Sam noticed, getting bigger as they walked. Starscream came to a halt in front of a door and opened it, stepping aside to let Sam in. Sam did so cautiously, looking around whist doing so. It was a large room with odd lab-like equipment in it, an enormous—even for a Transformer—computer, and a recharge pad.

"What's this?" Sam asked Starscream. Starscream just stepped in after him and shut the door. Sam edged away from him and looked at the room again. "What are—?"

A hand clamped over his mouth, silencing him, while the other arm of Starscream wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his sides. He let out muffled screams and thrashed, but Starscream's greater height and strength kept him still. He felt Starscream bend a little lower to put his head next to his own. **"I have **_**so**_** little self-control,"** he said in a low voice next Sam's audio receptors. **"It has always been one of my faults…I fully intended on getting you to trust me before I made my move…but no…"** Sam felt Starscream's hand around his body stroke whatever was in his finger's reach. **"I had to make you so attractive…so **_**alluring**_**…and your personality just adds to the delectability…"**

He suddenly whipped Sam around and threw him on the recharge pad, his own body pinning Sam's down. He leaned his face down close to Sam's. **"Listen up, boy," **he said roughly, one hand reaching down to touch Sam's crotchplate with his fingertips. **"You will do what I say, and you will do it quietly. Fail to comply, and I will be forced to insure that Frenzy has an…**_**accident**_**, leaving you mateless.**

"**Oh, I know what happens when one loses their mate," **he added, noticing Sam's expression. **"But I'm sure you know that if one looses their mate, they are saved from ultimate psychological meltdown if another mate is found immediately? I would be more than happy to volunteer."**

Sam remained still and silent, glaring with anger and fear at the despicable creature on top of him. Starscream took that as submission and pressed his fingers into something on the inside of Sam's left thigh. Sam felt something between his legs rearrange and he suddenly felt exposed. His suspicions were confirmed when he felt Starscream stick a finger inside of the exposed area.

"_**Fuck**_**!"** Sam shrieked, arching up. Starscream pushed him back down.

"**Quiet now,"** he said. Sam—like he experienced with Frenzy almost three years ago—felt and heard rearranging in Starscream's own nether regions and felt panic run through him. **"Calm down…" **Starscream hovered over Sam predatorily, his eyes glowing a brighter shade of reddish orange. **"This is just a break-in," **he said. **"I'm not planning on you conceiving the first time, so don't you worry your pretty little spark."**

Sam felt his spark flicker with pain as he left his body prostrate for Starscream to use. He thought he felt some form of liquid run out of his optic and down his face as Starscream took his time touching him.

"_**Bumblebee…"**_ he cried in his head. _**"…Barricade….Optimus…I need you guys…."**_

PB 

Bumblebee felt more and more anxious and scared as the Autobots made their way to the coordinates Barricade gave them. They had left Honeydew with the Lennoxes, though she had made a big fuss, not wanting to be parted from 'Bee' and 'Cade-Cade'. Barricade had promised her he would bring Daddy and Zee-Zee back, and he meant it. He focused on giving Optimus the most accurate directions possible, and relied on Frenzy to fill in the details.

Though all of the Autobots were worried sick, only Bumblebee and Barricade truly felt a deep sense of foreboding—a sick, scared feeling deep in their sparks only they who were closest to Sam could feel.

Something was _not_ right.

**Kinda sloppy in my opinion. I always figured Starscream has little to no self-control—working on trust then following his libido seemed like the reasonable way for him to go, no? **


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24- Help 

Sam laid on the recharge pad, motionless and staring up at the dark ceiling with dim golden eyes. His mind replayed the past hour over and over again, not allowing him to push it out of his head or get up, compose himself, and forget it. He hadn't moved an inch since Starscream decided to get off of him and go amuse himself elsewhere—leaving him without a word.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered where Frenzy was. Had Thundercracker lied to him, saying that Soundwave wanted to talk to him? Was he just unable to get way—locked somewhere to insure Starscream wouldn't be disturbed?

Sam's fingers twitched of their own accord, a tiny sound in his vocals accompanying it. He seemed to finally gain control of his body as he turned onto his side and put his hands to his face.

He screamed as loud as his spark was hurting, not caring who heard it.

PB 

Thundercracker stopped walking where he was going to when his audio receptors caught the sound of high-pitched screaming that made him twitch from the frequency. It was coming from…Starscream's own quarters. His optics darkened slightly. So that was how it was, was it? He stalked past the hallway of Starscream's quarters, looking for his elder brother for questioning. He was met halfway, for he ran into Skywarp en route.

**"Where's Starscream?"** he demanded. Skywarp gave him an I-don't-care look.

**"He disappeared to his lab ten minutes ago,"** he said. **"Cant imagine why."**

**"That selfish glitch went behind our backs and mated with Sam!" **Thundercracker hissed, his optics flashing. Skywarp didn't look too caring.

**"Your point?"** he asked. **"He's a breeder, and Starscream decided to breed with him. So what if he told us to be nice and wait until he had our trust? Even you had to know Starscream has first dibs on him—why wait for the inevitable?"**

**"You're not even slightly pissed off about this?"** Thundercracker demanded.

**"No,"** Skywarp said. **"I don't even **_**want**_** to breed with him. He still smells of human. Disgusting…"**

**"You're too picky," **Thundercracker grumbled. **"You don't **_**want**_** your own legacy?"**

**"I don't really care," **Skywarp replied. **"And neither does Demolisher. Soundwave already has enough 'legacies' to raise on his own. So you and Starscream can keep him to yourselves."** That said, he turned to leave. **"You're becoming attracted to him, aren't you?" **he suddenly asked. Thundercracker stared after him.

**"I thought you didn't care," **he retorted.

**"I don't," **Skywarp shot back. **"Why should I care about a former human? Humans are useless—they're not even worth entertainment!"**

"This coming from someone who couldn't stop laughing when Ravage was mistaken for El Chupacabra…"

Skywarp didn't deign to answer that. **"Either way, you shouldn't get attached to the breeder. It's not worth it." **

**"What the hell would you know about it?"**

**"I don't have to know anything about it to tell you it wont end well." **

**"Fuck you!"**

**"Am I interrupting something?"**

Both Seekers turned to see their brother standing behind them, arms crossed. Skywarp looked from Starscream to Thundercracker. **"Not particularly,"** he said darkly. He walked away, leaving Thundercracker to glare at Starscream.

**"What is with **_**that**_** look?" **Starscream asked. Thundercracker continued to glare.

**"You went behind our backs," **Thundercracker accused. **"Whatever happened to 'gaining his trust'?!"** Starscream stared at him and uncrossed his arms.

**"What's it to you?" **he asked hotly. Thundercracker glared harder.

**"I think it's a lot to me, when I can hear him screaming from your room," **he shot back, turning to walk away. He cried out in shock and pain when Starscream grabbed him and slammed him into the wall.

**"Listen to me well, Thundercracker," **he hissed evilly to his smaller brother. **"You stay away from him. He's mine, and **_**only**_** mine—remember that, or I'll make some 'adjustments' to you so I'll have **_**everyone**_** do to you what Frenzy did to him. Do you understand me?"**

Thundercracker wrenched himself from Starscream's grip and glared with more malice than ever. **"No, brother," **he said thickly. **"I **_**don't**_**. He doesn't like you, and now that you've taken him, he never will." **He turned and walked away, shaking with rage. **"He'll **_**never**_** breed for you!" **he called over his shoulder before running to the base exit.

Starscream let him go. He turned down the hall to his room and opened the door to see Sam lying in fetal position on his recharge pad. He stared emotionlessly at the small Transformer for a moment before picking him up and carrying him down the halls and into the small room he had first assigned him to. Just as he laid Sam back down, Sam's optics shot online and he froze at the sight of Starscream. Starscream leaned down and patronizingly gently nuzzled his head against Sam's.

**"Don't be afraid of me,"** Starscream said in a sickeningly sweet voice. **"I mean you no harm…" **He stroked his hand across Sam's face. **"Try to think of a name while you rest, hm?" **He removed his hand and person from Sam and walked out the door. Sam stared at the door for a few minutes before curling back up in his little defensive ball.

PB 

Sam was jerked out of stasis when he heard the door slide open again. He expected to see Starscream or even Thundercracker, but instead Frenzy came in after being let in by Soundwave, who didn't bother to enter.

Frenzy had spent the past hours just talking with Soundwave and his brothers, who felt guilty that they had attacked him. Soundwave commented on Frenzy's new body, as did the other Cassettes. Frenzy admitted that he did miss his 'family' and the bond they used to have. As soon as he walked into his room and saw Sam, he promptly forgot his reunion and scrambled up on the recharge pad to stand beside Sam.

"Are you alright?" he asked urgently, now sensing distress from his mate. Sam unburied his head from his arm, his gold optics flashing dangerously.

"_WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN_!?" he screamed at Frenzy, who nearly fell off the pad from the sheer force of Sam's voice. Sam sat up, shaking uncontrollably.

"I was with Sound-dwave," he said, confused. "You kn-now that!" He was shocked when Sam grabbed him with one hand and squeezed angrily. "S-Sam!" he stuttered, writhing to get loose. "What-t's the matter with y-you!?"

**"I'll fucking tell you what's the matter with me!" **Sam shrieked, shaking his mate in front of him. **"While you were having fun with your 'family', I was being fucking **_**raped**_** by Starscream! **_**That's **_**what's the matter with me!" **

"What!?" Frenzy demanded, getting angry. "Starscream p-promised he wouldn't—!"

**"**_**Fuck**_** what Starscream **_**'promised'**_**!" **Sam screamed. **"He fucking raped me! And you weren't there! Where were you when I was in trouble!? **_**Where were you**_**!?"**

**"Sam, please…!"**

Sam looked to the door and saw Soundwave still standing there, shocked, from what Sam could sense from him. He looked at Frenzy, then threw the smaller 'bot at him. **"Take him!" **he yelled as Soundwave caught his Cassette. **"Get him out of my sight!" **Soundwave promptly turned and walked away, the door shutting behind him.

A few minutes later, Sam felt a little regret. He knew it wasn't Frenzy's fault, but at the moment, he didn't care. He drew his knees to his chest and laid still again, waiting for whatever was going to happen to him next.

**Short, yeah. But next—the Autobots arrive! w00t! **


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25- Saviors 

Sam's spark was in agony. Even though he knew Frenzy's presence could help him, he refused to have him in the room, which he hadn't left since he was put in a day ago. Starscream hadn't 'visited', and neither had Thundercracker. The only one who came to the door was Frenzy, who quickly left when Sam screamed at him to leave.

Meanwhile, Frenzy was also in spark pain. It pained him to know his mate was in agony and wouldn't allow him in to comfort him. Soundwave and his brother's presences only dulled it fractionally, but he still wanted Sam. He noticed very recently, also, that Thundercracker had taken to walking around like a kicked dog, glaring at Starscream, but avoiding him, and Sam's room at all costs. This confused Frenzy, as he had seen how friendly Thundercracker had been toward Sam.

Near sundown, Sam was wakened again by his door opening. Instead of Frenzy, Starscream sauntered into the room, a feeling of pleasantness surrounding him. **"Good evening," **he said pleasantly. **"I've come to see if you have your name yet."**

Sam figured that was what Starscream wanted. That, or to fuck him again. He sat up, his eyes glued to Starscream for any funny moves. Starscream just leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms patiently. **"Do I really have to change my name?" **he asked softly. Starscream nodded.

**"Oh, I'm afraid so,"** he said with a mock-apologetic tone. **"It really cannot be helped. As soon as you choose your name, it will be added to your databanks for everyone to know. When the others scan you, that is the name they will see you as. Your name stays in place until you either spark transplant, or dramatically upgrade." **He paused. **"So, do you have your name?"**

Sam was silent for a moment before he swung his legs over the side of the recharge pad and sat there, his legs swinging slightly. "…I sort of thought of one," he said after a moment. "It's an acronym, but it's a name."

Starscream sat up from the wall and uncrossed his arms. **"Do tell,"** he said. Sam was silent for another moment before looking up.

"I decided to take my name and add it to my ancestor's," he said. "It makes an…interesting name." He paused. **"SAW."**

Starscream looked interested. **"Sam…Archibald…Witwicky…Am I correct…?"** he asked. Sam nodded. **"…It is acceptable. And since it is not too different than your human name, it will not be too drastic a change. I approve."**

"So how do I add it to the databank?" Sam asked.

**"Do you see that tiny circle-like shape on the lower right of your peripheral?" **Sam nodded. **"Access that." **Sam did as he was told and suddenly what looked like an entire personality sheet dedicated to him greeted his sight. He saw that two slots—alt. mode and name—were blank. **"Now, enter your name, if that is the name you truly want." **Sam stared at the name slot, then slowly entered mentally **S. A. W.** into it. When he was done, the slot turned into a general word and the personality sheet retracted back into the circle in his periph.

He looked up to see Starscream scanning him for a moment. Starscream looked pleased. **"Welcome to life, SAW," **he said happily. Sam—or rather, SAW, gave him a curt nod.

"Sooo…" he said slowly. "What now?" Starscream shrugged.

**"It's your life," **he said. **"You're the Decepticon SAW. Do whatever you want. The others aren't going to stop you." **He turned to leave. **"Just don't mope like you were. It's very unbecoming." **The door shut behind him.

SAW stared after him with utmost loathing. "Bitch," he spat after the door. He nonetheless got up and felt his joints clink, then walked out the door after him, strangely not feeling quite so traumatized anymore. He turned down the hall that Thundercracker pointed out was Soundwave's. He needed to talk to Frenzy.

PB 

Frenzy was in his own little world, locked in a state he next to never used to insure that Soundwave couldn't read his mind as he searched for Barricade's frequency. It didn't take long—they were less than a hundred miles from the base. He told them to look out for a camouflage hologram in the location he gave—but he left out the little detail of a newly robo-tized Sam.

He snapped out when he heard knocking on Soundwave's door. Finding that odd, considering everyone just came right in, he looked on when Soundwave opened it to reveal Sam. But immediately, Frenzy found something odd. His scanner file of Sam was brought up as **SAW**. Again. Odd.

**"What do you want?"** Soundwave asked, emotionless as usual.

**"Frenzy,"** SAW said. **"I figured he would be here."**

"I am," Frenzy said, stepping up from behind Soundwave. He looked up at Sam—SAW. "Are y-you ok-kay?"

"Am now," SAW said, coming in past Soundwave. "How are you?"

"B-been bet-ter," Frenzy replied. "You're different-t."

SAW looked confused for a moment, then realized that Frenzy must have read his new ID name. "Oh," he said. "I changed my name and added it into my personality file. Do you like it?"

Frenzy was silent for a moment. "It-t's…interesting…" he said.

"It's an acronym for me and my ancestor's names," SAW replied. Frenzy knew what he was talking about and nodded. SAW bent down and held out his hand to his smaller mate. "Want to go for a walk?" he asked.

"Sure," Frenzy said, allowing SAW to pick him up and hold him like he'd seen SAW hold that creature affectionately called Mojo. "Where t-to?"

SAW paused. "Just walk around?" he suggested. Frenzy shrugged, in indication he didn't care either way. SAW turned and left Soundwave and the other Cassettes staring after them.

SAW was silent for a little while he carried Frenzy around the base. "Frenzy, I'm sorry for keeping you away," he said after awhile. Frenzy turned his head to stare at him.

"It-t's okay," he said softly. "Really. I know you n-needed your sp-pace. And-d I'm sorry for not-t being there…I should-d have known St-tarscream would do that-t to you…I was a f-fool. I wont-t even ask-k for your forgiveness."

"You don't need to," SAW said. "You already have it. You couldn't have stopped him, anyway. I complied because I didn't want him to kill you." He made a disgusted noise. "That bitch actually said he'd make himself my mate if he killed you."

Frenzy made an angry clicky hiss sound. "Bast-tard," he hissed. "But he wont-t get rid of m-me that-t easily. Don't-t worry, Sa…SAW." SAW laughed.

"You are so cute when you're being tough," he said humorously. "Like Mojo when he's 'protecting' me…"

"Don't-t compare me t-to that creat-ture!" Frenzy said, not amused.

"Sorry," SAW apologized, not really sorry at all. They made it into the main meeting room place after a few minutes. "Well," he said, "we've been from one side fo the base to the other. Now I'm bored." Frenzy was about to reply, but then he suddenly felt someone try to contact him in his private comm. link.

They were here.

"SAW!" Frenzy said all of a sudden. "You kn-now when you sc-cream, your voic-ce releases a freq-quency that can shatt-ter glass, right?"

"Actually, I wasn't aware of that," SAW said, confused. "What about it?"

"Scream. Just-t scream!" SAW stared at him, getting more confused. "NOW!"

"Alright!" SAW yelled. He opened his mouth and began to scream. Frenzy covered his head with his hands, feeling everything around him shake from the frequency SAW emitted from his voice. He now figured it was an unintentional defense mechanism, but right now, it would aid the Autobots in finding them more easily.

SAW finally stopped screaming and stared down at his small mate. "What the hell was that about?" he demanded. Frenzy opened his mouth to respond, but an explosion from the base entrance answered for him.

"We're get-ting our aft-ts saved!" he responded. "The Aut-tobots are here!"

"WHAT!?" SAW demanded. Another explosion had everyone in the base running in to see what the hell was going on.

**"What the hell is going on!?" **Skywarp demanded of Starscream, who looked just as furiously confused.

**"How the slag would I know!?" **he screamed back. Soundwave came running in.

**"Laserbeak has informed me that the Autobots have discovered us,"** he said with urgent monotony. **"They are breaking in as we speak."**

**"I heard some Primus-awful shrieking going on right before," **Demolisher said accusingly, looking in SAW's direction suspiciously. Everyone else turned their optics to SAW.

"Err…" SAW said lamely. Starscream stalked over and grabbed him by the neck.

**"What did you do!?"** he hissed angrily, very apparently pissed off. SAW struggled against his grip while Frenzy fell to the floor. Frenzy launched himself at Starscream's leg and viciously tore at vital hydraulics with his bladed hands.

**"He did nothing wrong!" **he screeched. **"It was me!" **Starscream dropped SAW and glared at Frenzy.

**"You dont say,"** he hissed, picking the small Transformer up roughly and squeezing. **"You have been quite the thorn in my aft for awhile now, Frenzy."** He squeezed harder, making Frenzy shriek. **"I think I need to kill you now to insure I _wont_ be challanged again!"**

**"Lord Starscream, Sir..."** Soundwave began in an obvious protest.

**"No, Soundwave!" **Starscream yelled. **"This _thing_ is a glitch in existance and must be exterminated!" **He tightened his grip harder, but paused when SAW launched himself onto his arm.

"Leave him alone!" SAW shrieked, pulling on Starscream's arm. "Dont kill him!"

**"Get off of me, boy!" **Starscream hissed, jerking his arm back. **"He is not of enough worth to be your mate! He cannot give you anymore sparklings! He's worthless!"**

SAW's optics flashed angrily. He _desperately _wished he had some kind of weapon to stick right up his--! His thoughts cut off when he felt something twitch in his right arm and another file in his pariph signify that he had activated a weapon. He looked down at his arm and found a small blade produding from his wrist. He raised his optics skyward. "Thank you, God..." he said before he jammed the blade deep in Starscream's lower back.

Starscream let out a pained shriek and dropped Frenzy, whom SAW wasted no time in grabbing and hauling aft out of there.

**"_GET HIM!!!_"** Starscream screamed as SAW ran out of the room and for the exit.

'Gotta get to the Autobots, gotta get to the Autobots!" SAW mantra-ed to himself and he held the injured Frenzy in both arms and ran as fast as his legs would allow. He looked down at Frenzy, who was making pained sounds. "Dont worry, we'll get out of here and...!"

WHACK

He ran smack into something big and hard and fell right back, holding onto Frenzy carefully. He shook his glitching head and looked up to find he was face-to-face with the barrel of a HUGE gun. He stared at it for a moment before trailing his vision upwards to see Barricade staring down at him, his red eyes flashing angrily, probably at the sight of seeing his life partner injured. SAW wondered why he was threatening him with the cannon when it clicked.

He didnt know who he was. Fuck.

SAW locked optics with Barricade, too afraid to speak for fear of getting his head blown off and left to die on the Decepticon base floor. 'Please,' he begged to God-Primus-_anyone who gave a damn at the moment_-for Barricade to get the message that he was--was being the key word here--Sam.

Barricade stared down at SAW for a few more moments before SAW heard the cannon charge up. SAW lowered his head and waited for the imminant BOOM. It came, but SAW felt nothing. He heard something get shot behind him and the sound of Demolisher screaming and then falling. SAW raised his head and saw that Barricade's cannon had been aimed above his head. Barricade lowered his cannon and walked over to SAW and picked him up bridal style.

"Are you alright, Sam?" he asked. SAW stared at him almost disbelievingly for a moment before nodding. Barricade quickly turned around and began to rush out of the base. SAW suddenly felt fatigued and leaned against Barricade's form.

"...And, 'Cade...?" he said softly. Barricade looked down at him in question.

"...It's...SAW now..."

He promptly fell into stasis.

**Eh...yeah...shoots self in head I'm gonna sleep now. Next up--coping with a robotic Sam. SAW. Whateverthehell.**


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26- Reintegration 

Starscream was not pleased. He had heard from a severely injured Demolisher that Barricade had gone in first and run into SAW and Frenzy, then shot him and made off with the mates. Skywarp had offered to go right after them, but Starscream denied.

**"Let them go,"** he said bitterly. **"We cannot retrieve the breeder without causing some kind of damage to him if we fight the Autobots. I will not risk his breeding capabilities." **He paused pensively. **"We'll get him back. We just have to give it time…"**

**PB**

The Autobot base was unusually silent. The whole ride home, as a matter of fact, had been silent. When the Autobots saw Barricade come out with a small Transformer in his arms, who in turn had Frenzy clutched in his own, they had been rather skeptical. Ironhide was the first to demand who it was.

"…It's…Sam…" Barricade said as he walked over. Ratchet had given the small Transformer a quick scan.

"My scan indicates this is a Decepticon named SAW," he said as though he was explaining to a five-year-old that bugs were not for eating. "Explain to me how this is Sam." Barricade stared at him indignantly.

"One, he's attached to the spark with Frenzy," he said. "Two, I can sense him through mine and Frenzy's spark bond. This is Sam." He paused. "Or, SAW, as he is now called."

Silence resounded throughout the group. After a few moments, Optimus transformed back into a semi truck, the trailer in tow.** "Put him in and let's go,"** he said, the 'we'll discuss this later' left unsaid. Barricade gently slid the unconscious SAW and his injured partner in, making sure they wouldn't slide around. When that was done and bolted, everyone else transformed and hauled aft out of there, heading back for California.

…Which brings us back to the base. They hadn't been there an hour, and no one had said a word. Sam—or SAW now—had remained in a self-forced stasis, Frenzy doing the same, the whole three-day trip home, and had yet to come back online. Everyone was sitting in the main base in contemplative silence, sans Ratchet, who was touching up Frenzy's majorly dented chest. Bumblebee had been staring at SAW, who was lying on Optimus's recharge pad, since they got there.

Ironhide was the first to break the silence. "Forgive me, but I have to ask," he said all of a sudden. "How do we know they didn't program him to attack us? Our scans see him as 'Decepticon'."

"Your scans also still show _me_ as 'Decepticon'," Barricade added gruffly, "instated as an Autobot, or not. It depends on the production. Have you noticed that Frenzy's scan shows him as 'Autobot'?"

Ironhide grunted and crossed his arms. "My point remains valid," he said.

The banter was interrupted when they heard shifting from the recharge pad. They all turned to see SAW sit up and put a hand to his head. He looked up and saw everyone staring at him.

"…Hi…." he said quietly. The Autobots stared at him for a moment more before Bumblebee stood up and walked up to the recharge pad. He stared down at SAW, gold meeting blue.

"I just have one question," Bumblebee asked quietly. SAW shifted slightly and nodded. The yellow Autobot paused and put him through the test. "I'll take you to the candy shop…"

The Autobots stared at Bumblebee as though the 'bot had gone insane in the mainframe. SAW was confused for a moment, then it clicked that Bumblebee wanted him to add in to their in-joke song Bee had brought up randomly one day.

"…Let you lick the lollipop…"

"Go ahead girl, and don't you stop."

"Keep going 'till you hit the—."

"It _is_ you!" Bumblebee interrupted, hugging SAW, who froze with surprise. "Oh, Primus, Sam, what have they done to you…?"

"Err…it's okay, Bee," Sam said, awkwardly patting Bumblebee's back. "Really, I'm okay…" He looked to the others for help. "…Okay, aside from the fact that I'm in another body and my name's SAW now, I'm _fine_…" He sighed with relief when Bumblebee finally pulled away. "I…um…" He looked at everyone. "…I have some explaining to do, right?"

"Right," Optimus said. "You can start from the beginning."

PB 

When SAW finished his story, there was an air of homicidal tendencies from everyone. Bumblebee had been in Ironhide's restraining grip from the moment SAW told them he had been raped by Starscream. His guardian had let out a scream of rage and nearly blew a hole in the wall when he said it. Ironhide was pissed too, now vowing to shoot down any F-22s he happened to spot. Optimus was deathly silent save for any questions he asked SAW, who answered fully and leaving no detail out.

Bumblebee was shaking with rage, his 'wings' twitching angrily. SAW was afraid to look up at them in the optics, so his head was lowered and his hands were clasped together nervously. He wanted someone—_anyone_—to say _something_!

"…The twins will be back with Honeydew in a little while, SAW," Optimus said, breaking the ice. SAW lifted his head up and blinked, his spark swelling with happiness at the thought of holding his sparkling again. "Until then, I insist that Ratchet examine you to make sure nothing…" He paused. "…to make sure nothing is wrong with you."

SAW didn't bother asking what he meant. He knew Optimus just wanted to make sure Starscream didn't knock him up. He nodded and walked into Ratchet's lab and sat down on the lab table. Ratchet looked at him in question. "Optimus insisted on a check up to make sure I'm not pregnant," he said flatly. Ratchet nodded, knowing why because he had listened in.

"Lie down," he said, turning away from the now resting Frenzy. SAW did as he was told, resting his hands on his stomach, just wanting to get this over with. Ratchet moved over to the foot of the lab table, then paused. "…Sam…?"

"SAW," he corrected. "What's wrong?" He raised his head and saw that Ratchet was confused.

"…I'm not very familiar with your unique layout," he said, as though ashamed a medic didn't know the basic layout of a patient. SAW felt his core temperature grow warmer with embarrassment.

"Okay…" SAW said slowly. "Um…Starscream kinda…" He felt his temperature rise more. "…pressed something somewhere around here…" He pointed to the upper inside of his left thigh. Ratchet reached in to feel for it and SAW instinctively twitched away.

"Oh, come on already, SAW," Ratchet said irritably. "I've pretty much seen everything from genecology to childbirth—this isn't that different!"

"For _you_!" SAW shot back. "Forgive me if for the majority of my life I've had _male_ parts instead of female and I'm a little peeved you're gonna poke me in places I'd rather not be poked!" He heard Ratchet make an irritated sound and put two fingers to his temple.

"Do not make me put you under stasis," was his closing remark. SAW glared at him, then laid as still as he could while Ratchet continued to search for the activator carefully and as non-evasive as he could. His trained optics finally found something he'd never seen on another Cybertronian in the general location of the upper inner left thigh, and he gently pressed it.

SAW felt the same rearranging of crotch metal, as he called it, and again felt exposed. He heard Ratchet mutter something that sounded like 'interesting'. "Ratchet, this isn't a date!" he snapped. "Just find out if I'm pregnant or not so I can close my legs and never let you see this again until I'm ready to give birth!"

"Alright already!" Ratchet shot back. "Primus…" He set out a scan for any life form that might have been conceived, but found none. "You're clear," he said, backing away. SAW quickly pressed the activator again to close himself up.

"That…" he said slowly with a shudder, "was _not_ pleasant…!"

"I could say the same thing," Ratchet replied gruffly. "I've seen a lot of things in my life—_that_ wasn't one of them." SAW hopped off the lab table and and stood with his legs a little closer than normal. "No sign of any life forms at the moment, but I would feel better if I checked you again in the next month to be sure."

SAW groaned. "Fine," he muttered. "Just dont _ever_ say the word 'interesting' when looking at my crotch again."

"While looking at your _what_!?"

SAW and Ratchet whipped around to see Sideswipe walking in, obviously missing a good chunk of information. "Jeeze, Ratch," he said in a pseudo-dissapproving voice, "with Frenzy right there, too? I thought you had better morals..."

"_Get out, you annoying vermin_!" Ratchet yelled, pointing to the exit. Sideswipe dodged a piece of thrown equipment that SAW himself threw and skidded out.

"Oh, by the way, your kid's here," he added, sticking his head back in, then ducking back out. SAW's mood lifted exponentially as he ran out of Ratchet's lab and into the main base, where Sunstreaker was holding Honeydew, who refused to let go of his arm. SAW walked up to Sunstreaker, ignoring the yellow Lamborghini's stare, and held his hands out to Honeydew.

She lifted her head up and made optic contact with SAW, then let out a shriek of joy and leapt into his arms, hugging his chest while making happy sounds. SAW patted her body, making sure to take extra care with his new body. She didnt mind; all she cared about was that her parent was back.

Sunstreaker stared at SAW with interested optics. Sideswipe was the first to notice, and tried to intervine. "Um, Sunny...?" He was waved aside by his brother and leaned into SAW's space.

"Hi," he said in the classic 'wanna go out' voice. SAW paused and looked up at the taller 'bot, blinking once.

"...Hi..." he said, leaning back slightly. Sideswipe could tell that something ugly was about to happen, and put a hand on his twin's shoulder.

"Sunny...!"

"I dont think I've seen you around here," Sunstreaker said, his voice lowering slightly. It took SAW a moment to realize that he was getting_ hit on_. But before he could react, Sunstreaker reached down _groped _him. Dead silence resounded in the base.

"Aw, slag," Sideswipe said, putting a hand to his head. He didnt need to see as SAW brought his fist back and drove it into Sunstreaker's face.

**Oh, you KNEW Sunny would do that. I know you did. Anyhoo, SAW meets up with Mikaela and his parents again. How will THEY react?**


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27- Cutting Ties 

It took Sunstreaker a full five hours to come back online after SAW's fist glitched his operations.

When the yellow twin hit the ground hard, Ironhide had to support himself on the wall to stop from falling, he was laughing so hard. Sideswipe began to freak, calling for Ratchet, who hit his head against the cabinet at the thought of having to fix one of the twins _again_. Optimus put a hand to his head, praying to Primus for strength. Bumblebee gave Sunstreaker a swift kick in the exposed aft for touching his charge so inappropriately. Barricade joined Ironhide in the laughter, leaning against the weapons specialist for support. SAW had done the one thing _everyone_ wanted to do for millennia—beat the fuck out of Sunny.

After Ratchet dragged the Lamborghini's sorry metal carcass into Ratchet's lab, SAW settled down on one of Optimus's chairs and hugged Honeydew to him while she poked and prodded at his new metal body curiously. "_That_ was uncalled for," he muttered to himself. "_Why_ on Earth would he _do_ that?! I mean, he just…_groped _me!" He looked up when he heard Barricade make an uncomfortable noise and shift where he was standing. Bumblebee looked away, putting his hands behind his back. Sideswipe pretended to pick something off of his arm. "…What…?"

"Um…Sam…SAW…" Barricade said slowly, "…I know you're not…familiar with Cybertronian custom as a whole, but…" He paused as though collecting the right words. "…By our standards, you are very—and I mean _very_—attractive."

SAW gaped at him, his optics blinking once. "…Come again…?" he asked softly. Sideswipe buried his face in his hands and let out an undignified snerk. This time Ironhide shifted uncomfortably, his optics shifting out of SAW's direction.

"You're very attractive," Barricade repeated, the temperature in his head rising. "You have the figure of a femme, exotically-colored eyes, and you have a nice face, too—!"

"Barricade!" Bumblebee shot in. Barricade shut his mouth and looked down at the ground.

"Sorry," he muttered.

SAW stared at the other Autobots in shock, feeling slightly sick. "Oh, _God_!" he yelled. "I let Ratchet _look _at me!" Sideswipe let out another snerk and pounded the wall with one hand.

"Sideswipe, shut up!" Ironhide growled, whacking the red Lamborghini upside the head. "You don't need to worry about him, Sa-SAW," he added. "We all think he erased any attraction from his mainframe." Sideswipe let out a fresh bark of laughter, which was cut off when a tool from Ratchet's lab was hurled at Ironhide's head.

Optimus put his head in his hands and groaned, muttering a few choice words SAW found inappropriate for Honeydew's fragile audio receptors.

"…Hey, um…Optimus…?" SAW said slowly, gently stroking Honeydew's head. Optimus raised his head and nodded in acknowledgement. "…Can I…call my parents…?"

Silence resounded around the base. Ratchet poked his head in, concern in his optics. "I mean, I think it's important that they should know…"

"Are you sure, SAW?" Optimus said seriously. "We cannot be sure of their reaction to your…change."

"I don't care," SAW said firmly. "They need to know—whether they accept it or not. Either way, it'll be a huge weight off my chest." Honeydew looked up and blinked. "No, not you," he added quickly.

PB 

After Optimus gave his consent, SAW used the communications console to call his parent's house, telling them to come over for something urgent. His mother said that they would, and all there was to do for the next half hour was to wait. Frenzy had come back online by that time, and wordlessly waited with his mate and sparkling. The Autobots were quiet as well, metaphorically holding their breath for what was to happen.

SAW felt his spark jump when he heard his parent's car drive up. Honeydew felt her parent's anxiety and gently nuzzled her head against his shoulder comfortingly. "Time to face the music," he said softly. He heard Optimus welcome his parents into the base, where they looked around nervously for their son. SAW felt saddened when their eyes passed over him.

"Where's Sam?" his mother asked of Optimus. "He told us this was important." She paused. "Oh, God, he's not pregnant again, is he? Do you even _have_ protection?"

SAW smacked a hand to his face, feeling the heat rise exponentially at his mother's bluntness. 'She and Sunny would get along _so_ well…' he thought to himself.

"No, no, he's not pregnant," Optimus rushed quickly. He let his gaze turn to SAW for a moment. "…This is bigger than that. Much bigger."

"In more ways than one, ma'am," Sideswipe added. Optimus shot him a look and he quickly retreated before he joined his brother on the lab table.

"What does he mean?" his father demanded. "_What_ is going on!?" SAW took this as incentive to stand up and walk up to them.

"…Mom, Dad," he said quietly, making them turn around. "…_this_ is kinda what they mean…"

His parents looked up at him in shock. He stared back down at them, _wishing_ they would say something—_anything_. His father was the first.

"I'm out," was all he said. He whipped around and stalked out, shaking his head and muttering something under his breath. SAW winced, sort of expecting that, then waited for his mother to do or say something along those lines. She continued to stare up at him, tears slowly coming to her eyes.

"Oh, God, Mom…please don't cry," he said softly, kneeling down to get closer to her. "…please…"

"…Sam…?" she whispered softly. "…Sammy?" SAW nodded, and she put her hands over her mouth. "Oh my god, what have they _done_ to you…?"

"Not them, Mom," SAW said quickly. "…The Decepticons did it. They kidnapped me and did this…_please_ don't blame the Autobots for this!" His mother put her face in her hands and shook her head. "Mom…please say something…"

After wiping her eyes and folding her arms around herself, she looked up at him sadly. "Sammy…I'm sorry…" she said. "…I'm so sorry…but I…"

"It's okay, Mom," SAW intervened before she could continue. "It's okay." He stood back up fully. "I'll still be here for you, you know. Not as your son, but…as your protector…friend…"

"…Maybe…" she replied. There was an awkward silence. "I guess…I'd better go…"

"Yeah," SAW replied, his voice thick with emotion. "C-come by whenever you want…"

"…I'll try," she promised, turning and walking out. A few moments later, SAW heard them drive away. As soon as the engine was out of hearing range, SAW felt his legs give out and was barely caught by Optimus.

"Are you alright, SAW?" he asked urgently. SAW nodded.

"I'm okay," he said, though more to himself than to the Autobot leader. "I'm…" He felt his voice give out. His hands shook as he brought them to his face and cried. He didn't know how he _could_ cry when the others seemingly couldn't; he figured it was one of those 'extras' his body possessed. Maybe, maybe not, but all he knew was, his spark hurt.

He paused when he felt Optimus's arms curl around his smaller body comfortingly. Optimus slowly ran his hand over SAW's back, trying to calm him. "It's alright, SAW," he said softly. "It's alright." SAW felt fresh tears or whateverthehell come to his optics and buried his face in Optimus's arm. The Autobot leader let SAW cry for as long as he wanted, sending everyone else out with a quick glance until SAW was sufficiently calmed down.

After awhile, SAW raised his head and wiped his optic area. "S-sorry about that…" he stuttered, standing up with Optimus's help. Optimus shook his head.

"Think nothing of it," he replied. "You still have a family here, if not out there anymore." SAW nodded and gave Optimus a hint of a smile.

"Mind if I call you 'Dad'?" he said jokingly. Optimus shook his head.

"Not at all," he said, putting a hand on SAW's shoulder. "Call me what you want…" He paused. "…Just not 'Big-O', like the twins have taken to calling me." SAW let out a snort of laughter.

"…I'll keep that in mind," he said. He leaned forward and hugged Optimus around the upper waist area, not able to reach any higher. "Thanks…Dad…"

"What the _heck_ did I miss…?" Sunstreaker said, coming in and staring at the two. "Sides! What'd I miss…?!"

**Well…(claps hands together)…that's that. Next chapter is crucial. I'll tell you why then. Ta! **


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28- Reflections 

A month passed.

The day was over, and SAW was supposed to be in recharge, but all he could do was lie awake and stare up at the ceiling while Frenzy and Honeydew shared space on his chest. His mind wandered to the month that had passed—it had been interesting, to say the least, but by no means very easy.

He had been visited by a worried Mikaela, who upon seeing him stared at him for several minutes before bursting into tears and hugging his leg. He had awkwardly patted her back with his fingers, trying to make her calm down. Epps, the Lennoxes, Glen, and Maggie were also shocked at his change. After the initial shock and silence, it was Annabelle who broke the silence by begging him to pick her up. SAW gladly did so, making her laugh. He himself was surprised when she said "Higher, Sammy! Higher!"; his spark warmed to know she still knew who he was.

Glen bombarded him with odd questions like what it was like to be, like, 15 feet tall, or metal, and can he make guns come out of his arms? SAW answered the best he could for about ten minutes before Maggie, God bless her soul, pulled Glen away and made him shut up.

SAW learned that Sunstreaker and Sideswipe had gained a new home—("Thank Primus Almighty!" Ratchet said)—as the new cars of Tech. Sgt. Epps and his oldest daughter, Alicia. Epps was going to drive Sides, while Alicia got Sunny. Sunstreaker stopped complaining after a week, when he found that his new charge treated him like the precious jewel he thought he was—weekly waxing and all. During one of their frequent visits back to the base, they decided to name SAW as their 'honorary little bro', Sunstreaker saying that anyone who could knock him offline without denting his paintjob earned his respect, and Sideswipe just said anyone who could knock Sunny offline _period_ earned his respect.

After his rescue, SAW found that Barricade and Bumblebee got along much better, deciding to share the responsibility of protecting him and making sure the Decepticons didn't get a hold of him again. SAW remembered what he had told Thundercracker back at the Decepticon base, and who would be the next to father the next sparkling. He didn't want to choose between the two, but Optimus, of course knowing what was going through his head, told him that he didn't have to if he didn't want to—it was his choice as the 'new Allspark', as he put it, to make the decision of spark-bearing.

It saddened him, a few weeks back, when Ratchet confirmed what Starscream told him, that Frenzy could no longer father sparklings with him. Size wasn't the only issue—the Allspark in his chest had already combined with Frenzy's own, and Honeydew was the one-time product. It would be the same for everyone else—one each, unless there were twins.

Honeydew herself had hit two years old, and stood—when she stood straight—two feet tall. Ratchet measured her rate of growth and estimated that she would probably grow a foot per year until she fully matured at age 18, like most human girls, resulting in her being, at most, 18 feet tall. SAW noticed that her body was beginning to fill out more, instead of the wiry body she was born with that closely resembled Frenzy's old body. He also began to notice what looked like microfilament-wire hair growing from her head, adding to her half-human heritage. Just last week, she said her first full sentence—or, as full as a two-year-old could get—"Ratchet big glitch." Ironhide was given a stern talking-to afterwards.

SAW discussed the option of an alt. mode after thinking about it and staring at the empty slot in his personality profile. After much consideration, he asked Optimus to sneak him out in the trailer at night to a local dealership where he scanned and hence became a Pontiac Solstice, in honor of Jazz. When he went back to the base and transformed back into robot mode, he found that his body, though still 'femme-like', as Barricade put it, was slightly fuller with even more curves (much to his embarrassment) and interesting details on his arms and head. When the twins came for a visit, Sunstreaker stared at him a majority of the time, but staying out of reaching distance, while Sideswipe refused to make optic-contact. When they left, SAW swore he heard the twins outside arguing over who had the better chance with him.

Barricade as a whole was doing much better in the base, working with Ratchet to become a true medic. He got along better with everyone, slowly coming out of his little corner and making the effort to get along with the humans. Again, it was Anna who broke the ice by asking him to pick her up. It had become a sort of right-of-passage for the Autobots—all of them had held her at least once. He had gently taken her in his hands and raised her to optic level. She stared at him before hugging his face affectionately. The air of tension had dissipated, and Barricade gently handed Annabelle back to her father, who broke his own ice with "So…you like Metallica…?"

Bumblebee became much more protective of SAW since the return, hardly ever leaving his side except when everyone went into recharge. Even then, part of the cliff behind the main base had been dug out to make more room for SAW. It wasn't much, but it was a lot better than the Decepticon base's room, in SAW's opinion. The yellow Autobot insisted on a room close to his charge's, and since space at the moment was scarce, Barricade upgraded from sleeping wherever was convenient to bunking with Bumblebee in the joined room next to SAW's. Barricade sometimes woke up early from recharge to find Bumblebee sitting up on his own recharge pad and staring through the door conjoining the two rooms at SAW, who was blissfully unaware as he snoozed away. He never really spoke of it to the Camaro, because he too felt the overprotective urge hit him every once and awhile. That, and it was difficult _not_ to admire the attractive 'bot, sleeping or not.

Bumblebee also refused to call his charge SAW, saying that Sam would always be Sam to him. SAW understood, saying that either SAW or Sam was acceptable. Nearly everyone but Bumblebee and the twins referred to him as SAW from thereon out.

Optimus had opted to take his 'father' role seriously. He didn't insist on SAW calling him 'Dad', but knowing from observation that a father was generally a very respectable position, and that for a father to be called 'Dad', especially when not related by blood, was a hard-earned and cherishable honor indeed. Being the natural honor-upholder he was, Optimus knew that to be called Dad, he had to earn the right to keep it that way. (He found it humorous, however, when after Ratchet badgered the boy about the dangers of having a name-conforming saw like his implanted into his arm, SAW ended the conversation with "Yes, _Mom_…", making Bumblebee snerk and dodge a tool thrown at his head)

……SAW felt fatigue hit him suddenly as his train of thought came to a slow stop. He shifted his gaze down to Frenzy, who had opted to stay with him that night, sleeping on his chest with an arm over Honeydew, who had recently taken to sleeping with her fingers in her mouth. SAW smiled and put a hand gently over them, careful not to rouse them from their dreams. He let out a sigh and turned his head to the side and drifted off into his own much-needed recharge, his last thought bringing a light smile to his face…..

_Mojo had been sniffing a little too 'interestedly' at his feet as SAW sat on a Transformer-sized couch-like-thing in the main base while the twins and Ironhide were for a visit. SAW nudged the Chihuahua away slightly. "Back off, Mojo, and don't even __think__ about it!" _

_The other Autobots looked at each other, and the twins got an evil look on their faces. Quick as a flash, Sunny and Sides had their 'little bro' pinned back to the couch, effectively holding him in place. _

_"Guys! What the hell!?"_

_"This is your right of passage into the Autobots!" Sunstreaker said while trying to keep SAW from thrashing him off. The other Autobots knew what they were getting at and sat back to watch the show. "If you wanna be an Autobot, you've gotta…huh…hey, Sides, what's a good way of putting this?"_

_"You've gotta be baptized in the ritualistic lubricant of Mojo!" Sideswipe finished. _

_Ironhide burst out laughing and Bee and 'Cade had to support the other from falling down. Ratchet and Optimus just looked politely amused, thought they were busting circuits on the inside._

_"Oh, __fuck__ no! Come on, guys! Bee! Help me out here! Mojo, you get away from me right this—MOJO!!!"_

END 

_**Such Is Life: The Spark**__** has come to an end. I have a sequel, though: **__**Such Is Life: The Breed**__**. If anyone is at all interested in the sequel, then let me know, and I'll get to writing poste haste. I hope you have enjoyed this fiction as much as I have! **_


End file.
